If something is not done to fortify the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure, it could affect businesses from coast to coast, according to US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
“For years, the growing infrastructure deficit has been an issue akin to termites in our national basement, slowly eating away at our foundation,” Foxx said during a Feb. 20 speech before the US Chamber of Commerce. “Now it is a wolf at the door.”
The problem is funding, according to Foxx. There’s simply not enough money being spent on the kind of long-range infrastructure products that made the US a dominant world economic power. He cited such previous achievements as the transcontinental railroad and the interstate highway system.
“These are mechanisms that day after day, year after year, get products and people where we need them,” Foxx said. “And they keep the economic engine of America going.”
The Need for Long-Term Solutions
Today, lawmakers are willing to fund infrastructure projects that offer short-term solutions, but are unwilling to look at the big picture.
“Tell Congress: ‘No more one-year or two-year Band-Aids’,” Foxx told about 300 people at the chamber’s second annual Transportation Infrastructure Summit, which was held at the Chamber’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. “Tell them what’s at stake for you and your employees and the products you sell. Tell them to get to ‘yes’.”
If nothing is done to fortify the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure, businesses could see more than $1 trillion per year in lost sales, Foxx said.
“We have 100,000 American bridges old enough for Medicare,” Foxx said, adding that the US has fallen 20 spots over the past 10 years when it comes to the quality of its transportation infrastructure.
“This puts us behind Barbados, a country with one airport,” he said.
Pushes for Gas Tax Hike
Part of the solution is to support an push by US Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue to raise the federal fuel tax by 15 cents over the next three years, according to Foxx.
But US Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Penn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has recently indicated that such a boost in the fuel tax was unlikely given the current economic climate.
Currently the federal tax on motor fuels is 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 23.4 cents on diesel — the same levels they have been since 1993. The increases proposed by Donohue, which also have the backing of the American Trucking Association, would help fund the Highway Trust Fund. Without more money, the fund is expected to run out by August of this year.
Tax Increase Unlikely in Election Year
Still, Shuster said that because it is an election year, its highly unlikely that Congress will vote to force motorists to pay even more for gas.
“I just don’t think there is the will out there with the American public or the Congress,” Shuster said on Feb. 4.
This type of political paralysis is exactly what has led the US into this situation in the first place, according to Foxx, the former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Tom Donohue rightly urged Congress to stabilize the Highway Trust Fund and I’m grateful to him and you for stepping up and ringing the alarm bell,” Foxx said.