Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill to extend highway and transit programs for 2 months, but with reservations.

The last surface transportation bill, MAP-21, expired last fall. At that time, we passed an extension to the end of this month to give us time to work on a long-term bill. We have known for months that this day was coming; yet we have made no progress finding a solution to funding highways, transit, and other important surface transportation programs.

MAP-21, itself, was only a 2-year bill, breaking the tradition of Congress passing 5- or 6-year bills to provide the reliable funding necessary to promote long-term capital plans and projects that require a commitment beyond 1 fiscal year. The last long-term bill we passed was SAFETEA-LU in 2005. That was 10 years ago, and that bill was underfunded because of a resistance to raising the gasoline tax or to identifying new revenue sources.

For over a decade, we have failed to address the funding challenges necessary to break the cycle of underinvestment and put this country back on a competitive path with the rest of the work.

Today, we spend about 1.7 percent of GDP on infrastructure, while China spends 9 percent and Europe spends 4 1/2 to 5 percent. We used to spend 4 1/2 to 5 percent also.

According to DOT, there is an $800 billion backlog of investment needs on highways and bridges, including $479 billion in critical repair work. Public transit has an $86 billion backlog of critical maintenance and repair needs, which increases by $2.5 billion each year as bus and rail infrastructure ages.

While our infrastructure crumbles around us, House and Senate leadership refuse to come up with the additional $60 billion needed to fill the gap in the highway trust fund just to do a long-term bill at current levels; but this week, they will put on the floor a tax extender that will cost $182 billion over 10 years, completely unpaid for. The priorities of this Congress are completely out of whack.

I am concerned that we will pass this 2-month extension and be right back here in July having this same conversation. I will support this extension, but only with the understanding that we must spend the next 2 months, once and for all, making transportation funding a priority so that our citizens don't have to risk unsafe transportation so that we can invest in our infrastructure and we can be competitive in our economy going forward.

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