John Hennessy III,
P.E.
On Friday, December 4th, President Obama signed into law the first long-term transportation bill the U.S. has seen in ten years. The “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation” or “FAST” Act marks a long-awaited bi-partisan compromise. The act calls for an 11% increase in funding over its five-year span, and makes provisions for $16 billion in annual transportation funding not covered by the gas tax.
View this complete post...BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
BUDGETING FOR NATIONAL PRIORITIES PROJECT
The problem runs from top to bottom. Political wrangling and dysfunction mean that the federal government has ceased to be a reliable partner and effective leader. Furthermore, the rise in federal interest payments, the increase in entitlement spending, and the decline in traditional sources of government revenue, such as the gasoline tax, mean that competition for limited resources is fierce.
Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. In 2002, he formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America.
“…we’re at one of those points where lots of things have to change in our society, and one of them happens to be the legal infrastructure. You can’t have a democracy where the people you elect actually don’t have the authority that goes along with their responsibility…it’s kind of a form of legal mental illness. It’s bad for everybody. Bad for the environment, bad for costs, bad for everybody.”
View this complete post...Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 7
Congress has approved and the President has signed a three-month extension of the federal highway program through October 29 —but with enough funding ($8 billion) to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through December. When the lawmakers reconvene in September, attention will shift to the bigger struggle over how to craft and pay for a long term highway bill.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
Against the backdrop of continuing uncertainty around Congressional passage of a new federal transportation bill, a number of proposals have been circulated in the past year to address aspects of securing or reforming state and federal transportation funding. This white paper assembles the most prominent of these proposals and reviews them in the context of sustainable transportation, in particular, these three dimensions: funding sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 6
Trust Fund spending could be curtailed by progressively shifting funding responsibilities for local transportation to the States and localities and limiting Trust Fund expenditures to projects and programs that represent core federal responsibilities or are of truly strategic or national significance.
Hear Senator Inhofe’s insights on the federal government’s role in infrastructure as outlined in the U.S. Constitution in the latest episode of ASCE’s Interchange video series. Gain insight on the importance of a long-term surface transportation bill, and find out what ASCE members and the public can do to help advance this important cause.
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Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Professor Kanter recently published MOVE: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back in the Lead. In Move, Kanter visits cities and states across the country to tackle our challenges―and reveal solutions―on the roads and rails, and in our cities, skies, and the halls of Washington, D.C.
“I devoted nearly two years to in-depth investigation from the point of view of users of our systems, and America’s position in the world, and concluded that if we don’t get moving we’re going to fall farther behind the rest of the world, and if we’re not strong at home we can’t be strong as world leaders.”
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Infrastructure Week 2015 is almost here. This year, be sure to join us in advocating for comprehensive infrastructure investment and a better future for our nation as a whole. Events will take place “in Washington, D.C., around America, and on the internet,” from May 11th to 15th.
View this complete post...Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 2
With the prospect of a gasoline tax increase pretty much ruled out both by the White House and the Republican House leadership, and with various proposals for funding transportation through corporate tax reform meeting with skepticism from leading Republican lawmakers and thus facing an uncertain future (not to mention their unlikely passage before the current transportation measure expires at the end of May) perhaps the time has come to reconsider the way we fund transportation. Maybe we should abandon our 50-year old reliance on the gasoline tax and the Highway Trust Fund as the sole source of federal revenue and consider additional ways of paying for transportation infrastructure.
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