Issue Position: Transportation Empowerment Act

Issue Position

For far too long, Washington has tried to patch the holes in the Highway Trust Fund without offering constructive solutions to the underlying problems. We need to modernize the way we handle transportation projects, not just rely on short-term fixes or a one-size-fits-all approach to the nation's infrastructure needs.

Florida knows best which of their bridges are lacking repair or where road construction is most needed, not out-of-state members of Congress or federal bureaucrats.

I have introduced the Transportation Empowerment Act, which will give states the power to determine their own road map for transportation policy while largely eliminating Washington's role as a bureaucratic middleman.

As states take the reins of their own transportation initiatives, the Transportation Empowerment Act will also reduce the federal gas tax accordingly, from 18.3 cents a gallon currently to 3.7 cents a gallon. It simply doesn't make sense for Floridians to send their money to Washington in the form of federal gas taxes, only for the federal government to divvy the money out again. Let's keep our transportation dollars in Florida where the state and our local communities can best determine how they are spent.

Click here to read the op-ed that I authored with Senator Mike Lee from Utah discussing this common-sense solution to reform our nation's transportation policy.

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