The current extension of the nation’s surface transportation bill — The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) — expires on March 31. It was signed into law on Aug. 10, 2005, by President George W. Bush, and originally expired Sept. 31, 2009.

The organization says the key policy legislative language is expected to be released by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Jan. 30 or Jan. 31, followed by a committee meeting the morning of Feb. 2 to consider amendments and vote on the bill, the “American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act.”

State transportation department executives were briefed on the measure the evening of Jan. 27 by House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee staff during a conference call organized by AASHTO officials. Two draft bill summaries circulating on Capitol Hill indicate the House measure will include many provisions for which state Departments of Transportation have been asking, the organization says.

The bill — the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2011, or H.R. 662 — will now go to the Senate.

The current federal surface transportation legislation, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), expired Sept. 30, 2009. It has since been extended with short-term measures, but a long-term reauthorization has not yet occurred. SAFETEA-LU’s predecessor bill, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, or TEA-21, was extended 12 times before SAFETEA-LU was passed.

H.R. 662 would set the total obligation limitation levels for transportation funding at $52.7 billion for FY 2011. The obligation authority consists of $42.46 billion for highway funding and $10.33 billion for mass transit funding. The level of obligation authority is the same as FY 2010.

H.R. 662 would set the total obligation limitation levels for transportation funding at $52.7 billion for FY 2011.  The obligation authority consists of $42.46 billion for highway funding and $10.33 billion for mass transit funding.  The level of obligation authority is the same as FY 2010.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) note that the vote came one day after the organization sent a letter to all members of Congress urging “a swift adoption” of the measure. The full text of the letter is available at bit.ly/Horsley030111.

“While AASHTO continues to support congressional efforts to enact a well-funded, long-term surface transportation bill, the absence of such a bill makes this extension essential to creating and sustaining jobs and maintaining America’s transportation infrastructure,” wrote AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley in the letter to Congress. “Furthermore, this extension provides much needed certainty for the construction industry, states, and localities as they begin the 2011 construction season.” (For a story from the AASHTO Journal about the measure, click here.)

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) also sent a letter to Congress urging for an extension. However, NSSGA points out that passing a longer extension “is essential for states to continue funding of projects and for business planning and resource allocation, particularly when the construction sector has an unemployment level twice the national average.”

“Our members are the crushed stone, sand, and gravel operations in almost every congressional

district in the country and the principle suppliers of the materials used to build and rehabilitate

our nation’s highways, roads, and bridges,” said Jennifer Joy Wilson, president and CEO of NSSGA, in the letter to Congress.

“For the aggregates industry, the passage of five short-term extensions since the expiration of SAFETEA-LU on Sept. 30, 2009, has had a devastating impact. The lack of certainty in the federal highway market is preventing states and local governments from advancing highway projects. Because our industry makes capital investment and human resource decisions based on projections about the direction of the highway construction market over the long term, a drawn out approach involving short-term extensions depresses the construction sector further.” (For the full text of NSSGA’s letter to Congress, click here.) –Tina Grady Barbaccia

“I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America’s roads and rails and runways for the long term,” Obama said in his Sept. 6 Labor Day address. “I want America to have the best infrastructure in the world. We used to have the best infrastructure in the world. We can have it again. We are going to make it happen.” (For the text of President Obama’s Sept. 6 speech, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/06/remarks-president-laborfest-milwaukee-wisconsin.)

Obama acknowledged the hard-hit construction sector, pointing out in his remarks that nearly one in five construction workers are unemployed and the fledgling economy has been extremely hard for the

“I know these are difficult times,” he said in his remarks. “When times are tough, I know it can be easy to give in to cynicism…But I just want everybody here to remember, that’s not who we are. That’s not the country I know. We do not give up. We do not quit. We face down war. We face down depression. We face down great challenges and great threats. We have lit the way for the rest of the world.           

Obama says that the $50 billion infrastructure proposal will provide “long-overdue investments in upgrading our outdated, our inefficient national infrastructure.” He says this includes everything from roads, bridges, dams and levees to a smart electric grid, broadband Internet and high-speed rail lines required “to compete in a 21st century economy. We’re talking investments in tomorrow that are creating hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs right now.”

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) says it’s “pleased that the president is acknowledging the important role that both infrastructure plays in the American economy and both the short and long-term benefits that additional investment would provide.” The organization notes that it plans to consult with its members and coalition allies to advise on messages “to secure more investment in highway infrastructure while helping spur bipartisan passage of a multi-year bill.”

However, NSSGA points out that it’s not clear whether this infrastructure proposal is a preview of a six-year reauthorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) highway program that expired Sept. 30 last year and has been through a series of extensions that expire Dec. 31, 2010, or whether it’s “a separate one-shot measure intended to boost highway funding levels.”

Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), applauded Obama “for recognizing the vital importance of infrastructure investment to the long-term strength and competitiveness of our country,” but he says the nation really needs – “and what voters want” – is the Administration and Congress to work in partnership right to pass a transportation reauthorization bill. 

“While the President’s plan for an Infrastructure Bank and increased capacity in our infrastructure system is an important step, Congress has the opportunity to act now on transportation reauthorization that will result in immediate job creation,” Slater says in a written statement. “We need a strategic vision for modernizing our country’s infrastructure, and leaders with the courage to make it happen. We need Congress to pass a transportation bill, and they need to come together on a robust, multi-faceted and sustainable way to pay for it, including consideration of a user fee increase. Maybe this is not the most popular policy stance in an election year, but there is no such thing as a safe road built by American workers for free.”

American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) President and CEO Pete Ruane also commended Obama for the focus on infrastructure investment, saying that Obama has “correctly noted that infrastructure investment creates jobs, improves our global competitiveness and fuels economic growth.”

Ruane says that the passage of robust, multi-year transportation bills is essential to ensure predictability and continuity in the domestic transportation design and construction industry, and to help achieve national environmental, goods movement and safety goals.

“Accordingly, the $50 billion investment proposed by President Obama must be part of a long-term reauthorization bill and not a stand-alone measure,” Ruane says in a prepared statement. “Infrastructure investment is a proven cost effective public policy that provides recurring benefits for decades to come.”

Jim Oberstar, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman (D-Minn.), is supportive of Obama’s proposal , has also voiced a willingness to work with the president. “The principles outlined by the President are consistent with those put forward by the Committee in the Blueprint for Investment and Reform and the Surface Transportation Authorization Act,” Mica says, according NSSGA’s Washington Watch Special Legislative Update.

However, U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republican leader, vehemently opposed the President’s latest infrastructure spending proposal.

Following Obama’s announcement, Mica issued a statement saying that he would not support “another tax and spend proposal while billions of transportation and infrastructure funds sit idle.”

Mica says that instead of proposing a plan to more quickly invest the billions of dollars in infrastructure projects already approved in what he calls “the first failed stimulus, we get another Obama tax and spend program.

“I don’t know what planet these people have been living on for the last 18 months,” Mica says in the press statement. “They hijacked the $862 billion so-called stimulus, leaving less than seven percent in the bill for infrastructure, and they failed to ensure that even this small percentage of funds would be spent expeditiously.  Then the Administration undermined their Democrat House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman and killed any chance for a six-year transportation reauthorization bill.”

Mica argues that while it appears that the Obama Administration is doing something about job loss by proposing to spend more money on infrastructure with another stimulus effort, he points out that only 32 percent of the infrastructure funding approved 18 months ago in the first stimulus has been spent. 

“Projects continue to be bogged down by bureaucracy and red tape,” Mica continues. “Moving some of the tens of billions of infrastructure dollars that continue to sit idle should be an Administration priority to get people working and stalled major projects moving forward. Unemployment has now climbed to 9.6 percent nationwide.  In the hard-hit construction industry, joblessness exceeds an astronomical 30 percent in some states like Florida.

“Infrastructure funds need to be invested more quickly.  States need more flexibility in how they are allowed to spend money, and there must be more transparency in the process when the federal government is spending taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars….” (For Mica’s blog on transportation, go to http://republicans.transportation.house.gov.) –by Tina Grady Barbaccia

California, Florida, North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, Virginia and Washington received grants for 10 projects under the FHWA’s Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP).

“Value pricing” refers to varying price levels by time of day or traffic volume in order to manage congestion. It can significantly improve traffic flow by encouraging people to choose to drive at different times of the day, thereby spreading out demand and reducing congestion at peak hours.

“These projects show that states are developing new ways of thinking about how to manage congestion,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a press statement.

Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez says that the money from the program will “continue to support innovative solutions that will provide better results for the American people.

“Ultimately, people will be able to spend more time doing what they like and less time stuck in traffic,”  Mendez said in a press statement.

Some of the grants include the following:

•$1.9 million for the Texas Department of Transportation to test a pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) insurance plan that allows drivers to buy insurance by the mile.

•$1.8 million for the California Department of Transportation and the City of Berkeley to implement a parking pricing plan that includes real-time information on available spaces.

•$900,000 for south Florida to develop a priced-lanes network in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area that will improve the travel reliability for commuters, including transit and carpool users.

The VPPP was initially authorized in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) as the Congestion Pricing Pilot Program and renewed with the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). For more than a decade, the program has supported more 70 projects in 15 states to improve travel through pricing.

VALUE PRICING PILOT PROGRAM AWARDS 2009/2010

Source of data in the table: Federal Highway Administration

Transportation Committee Chairman Congressman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) announced that member-designated projects included in H.R. 5892, “the Water Resources Development Act of 2010”, which was introduced yesterday, and other committee bills are now publicly available on the Committee’s website.

On the first day of the new Democratic majority in 2007 , the House adopted rules to institute specific requirements with regard to member-designated projects:  for each project request, a member of Congress must certify that neither the member nor his or her spouse has a financial interest in the project, and each committee report must identify any congressional earmarks included in the bill.

In 2009, the Transportation Committee adopted a series of member-designated project reform principles to further transparency and accountability.

For legislation originating in the committee, members of Congress must provide specific information on the type, location, total cost, percentage of total cost of the project that the request would finance, and benefits of the project; provide at least one letter of support for the project from state or local government agencies; certify that neither the member nor his or her spouse has any financial interest in a project requested; and post requests for projects on the member’s Web site.

“As Transportation Committee Chairman, I have vigorously enforced the earmark rules instituted by the House, and today [Aug. 2] our committee takes another step in its continuing effort to provide unparalleled transparency and accountability,” Oberstar said in a written press statement. “The new database enables the public to search project requests by the member’s name, state, Congressional district, bill, bill title, and amount.

“Each member-designated project includes the ‘no financial interest’ certification, and beginning with H.R. 5892, the support letter from the state or local government,” Oberstar continued in his statement. “Finally, we make copies of all member-designated project requests available for inspection in the Committee office.”

Although Congressional earmark rules do not apply to certain committee actions, such as corrections bills, Army Corps of Engineers Survey Resolutions, and General Services Administration resolutions, the Transportation Committee has instituted an additional measure of transparency and accountability.

Under Oberstar’s direction, the Committee requires Members to comply with earmark rules if the request is targeted to a specific state, locality, or congressional district.  For instance, the Committee required Members to certify requests for corrections to high-priority projects that were included in the ‘Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users – Technical Corrections Act of 2008’ even though the corrections did not involve any new funding.

The database may be accessed at http://transportation.house.gov.

“With spring and summer highway construction seasons just beginning, these funds will help make it easier for states to put people back to work and begin long-term projects,” said LaHood in a written statement from the U.S. DOT.

The HIRE Act, which was signed into law last month, included a provision that extended funding authority for surface transportation programs through December 31, 201o. The law provides $40.1 billion from the Highway Trust Fund for highway programs for FY 2010.

In addition, the HIRE Act restores $8.7 billion to state DOTs that was rescinded last year due to a provision in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), surface transportation program authorizing legislation enacted in 2005.

SAFETEA-LU expired September 30, 2009, and since then, Congress has passed a series of small, short-term funding extensions based on SAFETEA-LU.

The provision included in the HIRE Act that extended highway programs through the end of this year now allows the Administration time to work with Congress on a more comprehensive, long-term authorization proposal.

“We are bringing together a knowledgeable group from diverse parts of the transportation community to provide their expertise to the Department,” Secretary LaHood said in a written press statement from the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT). “The new ACTS members will assist the Department in coordinating data and statistics with our work on transportation systems for the future.”

RITA Administrator Peter Appel said the appointments are an important step for BTS.

“I expect the new ACTS members to provide recommendations to help BTS increase the quality and relevance of its data at a time when the Department is working to create a 21st Century transportation system,” he said in a written statement. “These appointments are a springboard for BTS’ future as a vital factor in transportation.”

ACTS was created by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) of 2005 to advise BTS on the quality, reliability, consistency, objectivity, and relevance of transportation statistics and analyses collected, supported, or disseminated by the Bureau and the Department.

The new members are Christina Casgar, San Diego Port Authority; Robert Costello, American Trucking Associations; Elizabeth Deakin, University of California, Berkeley; George Donohue, George Mason University; John Gray, Association of American Railroads; Michael Replogle, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy; Anthony Kane, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; Kara Kockelman, University of Texas at Austin; Leanna Depeau, Missouri Department of Transportation; and John-Paul Clarke, Georgia Institute of Technology.

The new appointees replace previous ACTS members whose terms expired.

The Senate voted 68-34 on March 17 to pass H.R. 2847, the $17.6 billion “jobs bill” known as the HIRE Act, which extends the current surface transportation law until Dec. 31 and transfers $19.5 billion in the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) to ensure the fund’s solvency during the extension and restoring the recission that occured at the end of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity act–A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).

The final vote occurred after a 63 – 34 vote supporting a motion to waive a budget point of order raised by Republican Judd Gregg (N.H.), according to a special Washington Watch report from the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). At press time, the bill was just waiting a signature from President Barack Obama.

The bill grew from $15 billion in the House to $17.6 billion after an expansion of the Build America Bonds financing.

Eleven Republicans (Lamar Alexander, Tenn.; Kit Bond, Mo.; Scott Brown, Mass; Richard Burr, N.C.; Thad Cochran, Miss.; Susan Collins, Maine; Jim Inhofe, Okla.; George LeMieux, Fla.; Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; Olympia Snowe, Maine; and George Voinovich, Ohio) voted for passage, while one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska opposed it, according to the NSSGA report.

This solves the problem in the short-term, but now Congress must work on a six-year surface transportation reauthorization. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has called for a six-year, half-billion bill. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said March 15 that a six-year bill is on the White House’s radar, NSSGA notes.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will continue its series of transportation hearings on March 18, when members will hear from witnesses on rural and urban mobility, NSSGA says.

However, NSSGA points out that finding the funds to pay for a $400 billion to $500 billion bill will be difficult. LaHood said that President Obama wants a bill that is bipartisan and fully paid for, but the funds are not there. LaHood said that in the interim, the DOT will push Congress to create a $4 billion infrastructure bank that is included in the administration’s FY 2011 budget and, that the secretary said the department would be soliciting proposals for how to spend $1 billion in discretionary spending this fiscal year, according to NSSGA.

American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) President & CEO Pete Ruane says that the jobs bill passed on March 17 will stabilize the federal highway and public transportation programs to help maximize employment and economic activity in the 2010 construction season. 

“The bill also pays back to the trust fund interest earnings sacrificed in 1998, and ensures that future interest generated will be dedicated for transportation infrastructure improvements,” Ruane said in a written statement. ”…it ends the practice of penalizing the trust fund for fuel tax exemptions granted to certain users — creating approximately $1.5 billion in additional revenue annually to support infrastructure investment.

“Today’s vote was a victory, but we must keep our eye on the larger objective: passage this year of a robust, multi-year highway and transit authorization bill,” Ruane continued.