The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday on a
bill to keep the federal Transportation Trust Fund in the black at least
through Dec. 19. It’s a move to force the U.S. House to pass a bill of their own
before the Aug. 1 deadline when the fund goes insolvent.
The bill would provide $8.1 billion
for the trust fund. The Senate measure replaces a bill passed by the House last
week that provided $10.8 billion for the trust fund extending it until next
May.
Mark McConnell, the chief engineer
of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and chairman of the federal
Transportation Subcommittee on Maintenance, said letting the fund drop to no
dollars isn’t an option for Congress.
“If the trust fund goes insolvent,
we have to shut off all our projects,” McConnell said.
That’s not just Mississippi
The country’s chief maintenance
engineers are in Charleston
“Building a lot of capacity and
building new roads has shifted to maintenance because we have to maintain what
we build,” said McConnell.
He said even that will become
impossible if there is no federal funds to support repair projects.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the
chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said
Tuesday, “It is equally unacceptable for Congress to continue operating in a
crisis waiting until the very last minute to compromise for the sake of the American
people. We can no longer afford to maintain this cynical and potentially
catastrophic strategy. The Senate bill will require Congress to work on a
long-term deal this year, and I urge my colleagues in the House to support it.
The American people deserve better, and it’s time for Congress to deliver on
our promises.”
McConnell is in full agreement. He
said a six-year funding plan is a must if states want to keep their roads in
good repair and focus on new projects.
“From a DOT perspective, it’s
almost impossible to plan if you don’t have guaranteed funding over a long
period of time,” according to the maintenance engineer.
He said a problem that’s popped up
in Mississippi
“We built, what we call, the 1987
road program which is building a bunch of 4-lane highways all over the state.
They didn’t put anything for maintenance in there,” said McConnell. “So we have
all these new highways and no money to pay for them. It just builds a logjam of
pavement problems.”
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday
passing a six-year trust fund program will do more than just improve roads and
bridges.
“With more than 38,000 miles of
public roads within West Virginia
The House is set to vote on some
sort of transportation funding before they head home for vacation at the start
of next month.
