GOP senator, Foxx push for bipartisanship on highway funding

Sen. Den Fischer (R-Neb.) and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx are pushing for lawmakers to “work together” to pass a long-term highway bill when Congress returns to Washington in September. 

Fischer and Foxx wrote in an op-ed in the Lincoln Journal-Star that “investing in our transportation infrastructure is vital to our nation’s economic health and global competitiveness.” 

“Whether traversing through deep-water ports, over winding railroads or in the back of a long-haul truck, consumer products travel across the world before reaching the shelves of local markets in Lincoln and throughout Nebraska. Transportation fuels our economy,” the duo wrote.

{mosads}”By [investing in infrastructure], we will strengthen safety and commerce, and, in the process, create good, well-paying jobs for hardworking people in Nebraska and elsewhere. After all, nearly 12 million Americans work in transportation-related jobs.” 

The push for bipartisanship on road funding comes as Foxx and Fischer are scheduled on Wednesday to visit a diverging diamond highway project, which reroutes traffic on bridges to opposite sides of the normal direction of travel to improve the flow of traffic onto highways. 

Foxx and Fischer are also scheduled to hold a roundtable discussion with local transportation officials in Nebraska. 

The bipartisan roadshow comes after Congress failed to pass a long-term transportation funding bill before leaving Washington for an August recess. 

Transportation advocates pushed lawmakers to approve a six-year infrastructure funding measure, but Congress could not agree on a way to pay for the measure. Lawmakers instead settled for a three-month transportation extension that is scheduled to expire in October. 

Fischer and Foxx chided lawmakers for passing temporary transportation bills in recent years as federal infrastructure funding has dried up. 

“America … needs a long-term infrastructure strategy,” they wrote. “The federal government must provide state and local policymakers with the right tools to maintain and update our infrastructure or build new projects. Unfortunately, Congress has relied on 34 short-term extensions since 2009, disrupting major infrastructure projects and causing stress for road builders, local officials and the traveling public. We can and should do better.” 

Transportation advocates have pushed for a gas tax increase for years to close an approximately $16 billion annual shortfall in infrastructure funding that has developed as cars have become more fuel-efficient.

The current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon brings in about $34 billion per year. The federal government typically spends approximately $50 billion in funding per year, which transportation advocates have said is barely enough to cover the repair needs of the current U.S. infrastructure system. 

The shortfall has resulted in Congress failing to pass a transportation funding bill that lasts longer than two years since 2005. 

Fischer and Foxx did not mention the gas tax debate in their article, but they did praise a multiyear highway bill approved by the Senate in July that relies on a package of transfers from other areas of the federal budget to avoid raising the fuel levy. 

“Last month, the Senate took an initial step forward towards addressing our nation’s transportation challenges by passing a multiyear surface bill,” the duo wrote. “In the months ahead, Congress must work to pass a long-term bill to provide states and localities with certainty and more options to move important projects forward.”