Vermont Business Magazine In a vote of 65 to 34, the US Senate Thursday afternoon approved a comprehensive six-year authorization for transportation programs and the Highway Trust Fund. The House has not yet drafted or acted on a long-term bill. Because the six-year bill is only partially funded, the Senate today passed a stopgap fix to replenish the Highway Trust Fund for three months before its funding would have been depleted Friday at Midnight. The House is expected to also pass the stopgap measure.
US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), who has long pushed for long-term solutions for funding infrastructure investments and the Highway Trust Fund, voted for the six-year bill, while expressing concerns about some of its provisions.
"Today the Senate will approve a comprehensive, six-year authorization for our Nation’s transportation systems," Leay said in a statement. "It will give our states and local communities the ability to plan for investments in the critical infrastructure that supports our cities and towns, enables inter- and intrastate commerce, and creates jobs for American workers.
"This bill is far from perfect; I have strong concerns about the lack of safety measures in this bill. I am particularly concerned that this authorization will allow for mammoth tractor trailer trucks – the equivalent of wheeled eight-story buildings – to drive alongside all the other motorists on some of our roads. I am concerned that this bill will undermine the goals of the National Environmental Policy Act. And I am concerned that, while we have before us a needed six-year authorization, this transportation bill is funded only through 2018. I hope that as the Senate and the House conference a long-term transportation authorization bill, these concerns will be adequately addressed.
"It is regrettable that some in Congress, for several years now, have done their utmost to undermine what used to be strong bipartisan support for responsible and timely reauthorizations and funding of the Highway Trust Fund and our transportation infrastructure. The result has been a continuing era of stop-gap, short-term fixes, which hobble state and local transportation planning and which impose unending uncertainty on their vital work. How short-sighted, and how irresponsible. We must get back to that kind of consensus, and that kind of forward-thinking action.
"A series of short-term patches do not provide states like Vermont – where the construction season is short, and the infrastructure needs are many – with the certainty they need to make needed repairs to the bridges, roads and byways that keep business moving and connect our rural towns and villages. This legislation, however, is the result of compromise on all sides. This bill protects the MPA-21 funding formula, which will benefit Vermont and maintain a level stream of federal funding for Vermont. I am also pleased the bill includes a 20 percent revenue provision dedicated to highway and transit growth, despite previous attempts to decrease it to six percent. I am also gratified that, in working with the relevant committee chairs, we were able in this final bill to remove unnecessary and harmful exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act, which remains the public’s first line of defense in the right to know what their government is doing. Nowhere is the free flow of information more important than when the safety and wellbeing of every Vermonter – of every American – is at stake.
"The House of Representatives now has an opportunity. They can kick the can down the road, beyond this year, or they can get to work, devise a meaningful, reasonable long-term transportation authorization bill. Short term authorizations will not adequately address our Nation’s crumbling infrastructure. After investing billions of dollars in infrastructure development overseas, it is well past time to invest right here at home, in our own people and their communities, and in our own country. We need this certainty, and we need it now."
US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said: “I reluctantly voted for a three-month extension to avoid a shutdown of federal highway and transportation projects. I am extraordinarily frustrated that Congress failed to pass a long-term bill before the July 31 deadline. The Senate transportation committee unanimously passed the bulk of the bill last month. Meanwhile, the House has not done anything.”
Sanders serves on the Senate transportation committee and helped draft a comprehensive six-year plan. The six-year, $278 billion transportation funding bill includes more than $1.3 billion for Vermont to repair and improve its roads and bridges.
“It is no secret that our infrastructure is crumbling,” Sanders said. “One of every nine bridges in our country is structurally deficient and nearly a quarter are functionally obsolete. Almost one-third of our roads are in poor or mediocre condition.”
The six-year bill also includes several provisions authored by Sanders that would benefit Vermont, including: changes to make Vermont competitive for funding through a new program to support projects of regional or national significance; significant regulatory flexibility for rural roads; and lowering the cost of borrowing federal funds for rural projects. Another Sanders provision would start the process of creating a national network of recharging stations for electric vehicles.
The U.S. spends just 1.7 percent of its gross domestic product on infrastructure, less than at any point in the last two decades. Meanwhile, Europe spends close to twice our rate, and China spends close to four times our rate. “We must invest much more in infrastructure to keep America competitive in this global economy,” Sanders said.
“I call on Speaker Boehner to take up the six-year bill that the Senate has now passed as soon as the House reconvenes in September,” Sanders said.
VERY TOP PHOTO: Paving in Starksboro Village. VTrans file photo.