Dear Chairman Ryan:
We renew our call to work on a bipartisan basis to provide a long-term funding solution for the Highway Trust Fund program. This program provides a federal source of funding for the nation’s infrastructure and supports millions of American jobs.
Our transportation infrastructure system is in dire straits. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave it a D+ in its 2013 report card, emphasizing that the cost of our failing transportation system could result in the loss of 876,000 jobs by 2020. Indeed, our nation’s failure to repair its infrastructure costs our economy billions of dollars in lost commerce annually, further hindering America’s competitiveness. Our once world-leading infrastructure was ranked 25th by the World Economic Forum in 2013.
The spending authority for the Highway Trust Fund program expires on May 31, 2015. There have now been 23 short-term extensions since the last six-year transportation bill expired in 2003. These short-term extensions must stop. We are calling for a long-term, six-year extension.
The Budget Committee, under your leadership, explored long-term, solvency solutions for the Highway Trust Fund on April 24, 2013. In opening that hearing, you acknowledged that “the Highway Trust Fund is broke," “[t]his problem has been building for years," and that “the federal government is neglecting [its] responsibility" to address this problem. We strongly agree.
The 113th Congress ended without a single Ways & Means hearing on transportation funding, and the situation this year is only more urgent. We look forward to working with you to hold comprehensive hearings in June, with a wide range of stakeholders, that fully consider all funding options and aid the Ways and Means Committee in carrying out its responsibility to find a funding source that is stable, dedicated, and substantial enough to fund a full, long-term reauthorization.
Sincerely,
The Honorable Sander Levin
The Honorable Charles B. Rangel
The Honorable Jim McDermott
The Honorable John Lewis
The Honorable Richard E. Neal
The Honorable Xavier Becerra
The Honorable Lloyd Doggett
The Honorable Mike Thompson
The Honorable John B. Larson
The Honorable Earl Blumenauer
The Honorable Ron Kind
The Honorable Bill Pascrell Jr.
The Honorable Joseph Crowley
The Honorable Danny K. Davis
The Honorable Linda T. Sánchez
