Cargo Business Newswire

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Top Story

Obama sends transportation funding bill to Congress

The White House sent a transportation bill to Congress yesterday to address an expected shortage in infrastructure funding on U.S. bridges, roads and transit systems, but Republican opposition may thwart its passage.

The four-year, $302 billion legislation would address the trust fund's imminent shortfall and offer an additional $87 billion to pay for a backlog of repairs such as structurally deficient bridges and aging transit systems. It would be paid for, in part, by ending certain tax breaks for businesses, a measure many Republicans are against.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the administration is open to other funding ideas for the bill.

"At the end of the day, the important thing is that we pass a bill that avoids a destructive collapse in funding that would threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs and inflict unnecessary damage on our economy," Foxx said, reporting that some states are already canceling/delaying transportation projects "because of the uncertainty at the federal level."

The Highway Trust Fund, which will likely run out of funds by August 2014, has typically been paid for by taxes on gasoline and diesel. But since fuel use has been sluggish, there's not enough money to cover crucial infrastructure needs.

Roughly 63,000 U.S. bridges, or one out of every 10, are in urgent need of repair, according to a last week's report by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.

For more of the Reuters story: reuters.com