ASA Supports Full Funding Levels for Highway Trust Fund Programs
Currently, the U.S. Transportation Department cannot implement all parts of the infrastructure law because government funding is constrained at last year’s levels. Several programs authorized by the new infrastructure law are being delayed under the current continuing funding resolution, which sunsets on February 18th. Per Carlos Monje (Undersecretary for Policy at the Transportation Department), “as long as Congress continues to pass short-term continuing resolutions, some transportation programs will remain hampered. Also, the stopgap has also prevented officials from using administrative expenses to start the new programs, which means that they are struggling with staffing.”
To this end, ASA, along with a coalition of public and private sector stakeholders in the transportation industry, wrote a letter to congressional leadership extending our appreciation for the robust transportation infrastructure funding included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA); however, “without a full-year appropriations bill, we anticipate that states, local governments, and public transit agencies will not be able to access the IIJA’s roughly 20 percent funding increase for highway formula programs and more than 30 percent increase for public transit formula programs, along with any new transportation initiatives that Congress provided for in the IIJA.”
Finally, per the letter, “the signing organizations have advocated for and continue to advocate for a full-year appropriations bill. However, a delay of almost six months since the beginning of FY 2022 in providing the much-touted funding increases from the IIJA is wholly unacceptable and will cause significant project disruptions, reduced construction and manufacturing employment, and delays in delivering critical transportation infrastructure improvements—just when Americans were promised the most ambitious infrastructure package of our time.”