Robert Puentes

Transit Reauthorization Battle

Senior Fellow, Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, Sep 02, 11.

Tagged with transportation, federal transportation funding, reauthorization

In the annals of Rose Garden speeches, the brief remarks by President Obama yesterday about extending the nation’s surface transportation law were, for the most part, unremarkable. He called on Congress to not let the current highway and transit authorization expire and then pressed for reforms in how we invest in transportation projects. America’s infrastructure used to be world class, he said, but today we’re falling badly behind.

This is not a new message, but in the context of American jobs—the topic of the president’s next big speech—and the fiscal health of our states and municipalities, it matters tremendously.

The nation is still stinging from the recent impasse over the failure to reauthorize the nation’s aviation law. That two-week delay furloughed 4,000 federal employees and idled another 75,000 or so private-sector workers because of disagreements about subsidies to rural airports. While we believe that program to be outdated and in need of reform, shutting everything down and taking away Americans’ paychecks during this time of economic hardship was harsh and unnecessary.

We’re headed for a similar standoff on the highway and transit side, too. That’s why the main and most forceful message from the president’s speech was not about high speed rail, or transformative investments, or repairing bridges, or a number of other national priorities. It was to call on Congress to simply extend the current transportation authorizations before they expire this September.

Full Story: Lots at Stake in Transportation Reauthorization
Source: The New Republic, September 1, 2011

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