By Kaeun Yu
At Tuesday’s budget hearing of the House Appropriation Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies, Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood proposed a $556 billion reauthorization for the Department of Transportation budget request for the next six years.
Lahood touted the budget proposal by pointing out the nation’s investment in infrastructure has been inadequate. Lahood added that the $556 billion request would also help the economy by increasing jobs.
“We know how to put people to work,” Lahood told the members of the committee. “We have deteriorating roads and bridges, and we have folks in the neighborhood who need work. What better way to do it?” said Lahood.
According to Lahood, funding the budget is possible through the Highway Trust Fund, which is collected through fuel and other excise taxes, Public-private partnerships and by creating a national infrastructure bank, and allow government grants to leverage loan programs to transportation projects. Tolling or congestion pricing, modeled in London, were discussed as other ways to generate funding.
“For too long we have put off the improvements needed to keep pace with today’s transportation needs,” said Lahood in a released statement.
“If we settle for the status quo, our next generation of entrepreneurs will find America’s arteries of commerce impassably clogged and our families and neighbors will fight paralyzing congestion.”
President Obama has currently requested $129 billion for Transportation in FY 2012. As he stressed during the State of the Union, investment in infrastructure is essential to “win the future”.
Chair of the Subcommittee Tom Latham (R-Iowa) pointed that no bill by DOT has been proposed yet and that work with the authorizing committee is needed.