Labor, business find agreement on transportation issues

“Seventeen years is a long time and the states have stepped up,” Donohue told the committee.

The federal gas tax is currently 18.4 cents a gallon and hasn’t changed since 1993. Some states have implemented their own increases to pay for infrastructure improvements. 

“The gas tax has not been raised since 1993,” Trumka said. “It provides diminishing levels of funding and should be raised.”

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a member of the panel, has suggested gradually increasing the gas tax to provide more cash for the Highway Trust Fund to help repair and improve the nation’s ailing infrastructure. 

“While there is a growing consensus that investing in our infrastructure is the first, best thing Congress can do for our short- and long-term economic success, there is no such consensus on how to fund it at the level it requires,” Trumka told the panel.

The Obama administration has expressed opposition to an increase in the gas tax, arguing that any tax increases during the economic downturn may prove detrimental to the recovery. 

The issue also has brought together panel Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.). 

“We don’t get along with you guys on environment issues,” Inhofe said. “We’re together on this very significant issue. There’s not a person up here who doesn’t look at dire straights that we’re in.”

Donohue emphasized the need for policymakers to agree on a direction for infrastructure, determine the cost and then determine how to leverage enough cash to pay for a long-term plan, including a mixture of public and private resources to provide the necessary level of funding. 

“There should be no further delay on a multi-year authorization of the federal highway and public transportation programs,” he said. “The Chamber’s business members large and small engage in long-term planning that relies on assumptions about the economic foundation of our country. Passage of a strong highway and public transportation authorization proposal with bipartisan support will help to set the table on which these companies and their employees conduct business.”

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is asking Congress to complete a six-year bill before the August recess. The last transportation bill expired in September 2009 and has been continued under short-term extensions. 

The White House’s fiscal 2012 budget provides an outline for an aggressive $556 billion infrastructure plan that would invest $50 billion this year into transportation projects and $8 billion into high-speed rail. 

So far, the administration is leaving the funding decisions to Congress. 

Trumka rolled out a list of possible funding solutions, including a user fee based on vehicle miles traveled, expanding the role of the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act, a successful federal loan and credit enhancement program, using a National Infrastructure Bank, reauthorizing the Build American Bond program, implementing a financial speculation transaction fee on Wall Street and convincing the the Federal Reserve to allocate a portion of its bond authority to buy infrastructure bonds.

Boxer provided some support for a plan to collect a fee for miles that drivers log but said it should be paid each year by users on the honor system, not by a system installed in drivers’ vehicles.

“We believe everything should be on the table when looking at funding sources, utilizing innovative ideas as well as beefing up revenue streams that currently fund the system,” Trumka said. 

“All of these ideas would help,” he said. “But they alone will not generate the robust levels of funding needed for us to stay competitive in the global economy.”

For Donohue, an important factor is for Congress to develop a sustainable revenue model that allows for equitable distribution across all system users, which provides adequate and predictable revenue and can be administered with minimal overhead.

Any long-term bill must improve safety, reduce congestion, maximize the use of existing assets, improve urban mobility and ensure rural connectivity for small communities to support major economic population centers, Donohue said.  

“We have outlined the wide gap between what is needed to fund a modern system and what the U.S. is actually investing,” Donohue said. 

“Last year, the Chamber became the first organization ever to measure the performance of the transportation system and to make a direct link between the performance of transportation infrastructure and economic growth,” he said. 

Trumka and Donohue also said they’ll be sitting down soon to discuss another issue, U.S. manufacturing, which they see intricately tied to infrastructure spending. 

“Investing in infrastructure projects will also boost our manufacturing sector,” Trumka said. “These projects create substantial long-term employment in manufacturing, design and engineering when we use the domestic U.S. supply chain to produce the materials that will be needed — from concrete, wire, steel and pipes to high-speed trains.”  

If Congress can get past short-term extensions that will be a signal that should bring in more private investment — everything else will follow, said Donohue. 

“We have simply coasted through the past several decades, and this neglect will require a Herculean effort to restore our competitiveness in the world,” Trumka said. 

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is expected to approve on Wednesday another short-term extension of current surface transportation through the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.