Letter to The Honorable Jeb Hensarling Chairman House Republican Conference and The Honorable David Drier Chairman-Designate House Rules Committee

Letter

Reps. Joe Courtney (CT-02), Peter Welch (VT-AL) and Laura Richardson (CA-37) today sent a letter to Republican leaders urging them to adopt an amendment to their rules package that would ensure funding for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and protect building trades jobs. The Republicans' proposed rule change would undermine the HTF and further destabilize the already-devastated industry. Because the GOP has prohibited open deliberations and amendments to the rules package that will govern the House, Courtney, Welch and Richardson have called on the Republicans to consider their amendment during closed-door conference deliberations.

Today's letter is a follow-up to a letter Courtney sent directly to Speaker-Designate Boehner on December 30 urging him to strike the rule.

The full text of the letter to Reps. Hensarling and Dreier is below:

January 4, 2011

The Honorable Jeb Hensarling
Chairman
House Republican Conference
1420 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable David Drier
Chairman-Designate
House Rules Committee
1627 Longworth Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Hensarling and Chairman Drier:

As the House Republican Conference debates amendments to the rules package for the 112th Congress, H.Res.5, we write to urge your consideration of the attached amendment that would protect guaranteed funding for multi-year transportation projects. As it appears that Democratic members will not have the opportunity to participate in deliberations on the package or offer amendments on the floor, we hope that this amendment will be considered during today's closed-door conference deliberations on the rules governing the House chamber.

As you may know, rules in effect for over a decade through the end of the 111th Congress, Rule XXI Clause 3, required that all revenues paid into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) would be used for eligible highway and transit projects. Enacted in 1998 as part of the multi-year surface transportation act, TEA-21, this rule ensured that user fees and revenue dedicated to the Trust Fund was fully utilized for infrastructure improvement, rather than being siphoned off for other purposes. It also provided the kind of certainty and stability in long term planning for major infrastructure projects needed by the industry and state and local government.

However, the new rules package proposed by the House Republican Conference undercuts this commitment by exposing the Trust Fund to the annual Appropriation process. By treating dedicated Trust Fund revenue and expenditures as all other general spending, it raises significant doubt about Congress's long term commitment to infrastructure investment at exactly the wrong time for this troubled industry. Rather than reversing over a decade of bipartisan consensus through the rules package, we believe that the Congress should focus instead on enacting a multi-year highway authorization bill to address issues related to the Trust Fund.

The stakes are particularly high in the transportation building trade sector of the American economy in 2011. The unemployment rate in this sector is much higher than the rest of the economy -- nearly twice the national average -- and the ability of state and local government to fund critically needed projects is almost nonexistent. Further, this change would inject uncertainty into an already ailing sector of our economy.
This new rule will do little other than weaken our country's efforts to create employment in a hard hit sector. At a time when so many in Congress -- including the new incoming Majority -- have stressed the need for stability in our economy, certainty in our finances and an emphasis on job creation and protection, this particular portion of the rules package is nothing short of counterintuitive to these important goals.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

JOE COURTNEY
Member of Congress

PETER WELCH
Member of Congress

LAURA RICHARDSON
Member of Congress

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