Unions want short-term highway fix

Labor groups are pushing Congress to approve a temporary extension of federal transportation funding that lasts only until the summer. 

The current transportation funding measure is scheduled to expire on May 31, and lawmakers are flirting with the idea of passing a temporary extension to prevent an interruption in the federal government’s infrastructure spending. 

Some lawmakers have pushed for the extension to last until the end of the year to allow states to get through the busy summer construction season, but AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) President Ed Wytkind said Wednesday that the patch should last only until July. 

{mosads}“Years of congressional inaction on a long-term surface transportation bill has harmed our economy,” Wytkind said in a statement. 

“As highway and transit programs face a May expiration, it makes no sense to pass a longer-term extension as some are proposing,” he continued. “Congress should pass a clean, short-term extension through July and then get to work on a robust long-term bill that expands investments and job creation and is paid for with a sustainable revenue stream.”

The looming transportation funding deadline has been a source of consternation in Washington for most of the year. 

Lawmakers in both parties have expressed a desire to prevent such an interruption in the federal government’s road and transit spending, but they have been struggling to come up with a way to pay for an extension.

The traditional source of transportation funding has been revenue that is collected by the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and its buying power has been sapped by improvements in car fuel efficiency in recent years. 

The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in $34 billion. 

Lawmakers have turned to other areas of the federal budget to close the $16 billion gap in infrastructure funding in recent years, but transportation advocates have complained the temporary patches are making it too difficult for state and local governments to plan long-term construction projects. 

Transportation advocates have suggested that raising the tax or at least indexing it to inflation would be the easiest way to close the infrastructure funding shortfall, but lawmakers have been reluctant to ask drivers to pay more at the pump. 

The Department of Transportation has said that it will have to begin cutting back on payments to state governments for construction projects that are already underway in late July or early August if Congress does not reach a deal to extend the infrastructure funding.