The third piece of the federal Highway Trust Fund
reauthorization puzzle fell into place this morning with the release of the
Obama Administration’s 256 page fiscal 2013 budget message. The White House is
asking Congress for a six year, $476 billion reauthorization of the Highway
Trust Fund, including spending from motor fuel taxes and general federal
revenues, all marked as mandatory expenditures.
This amounts to annual expenditures averaging more than $79.3
billion for each of the next six years, an appropriation level over 229%
greater than HR 7 and more than 190% greter than SB 1813, the two measures
currently pending on the floors of Congress. The Administration’s release of
this proposal on the heels of the miserly bills reported out of Congressional
committees last week will undoubtedly serve to prolong the battle over
reauthorization legislation, and lead to several more interim, month to month
appropriation measures.
Each step in this process demonstrates how little the Washington
DC politicians care about the devastating impact their behavior has on state
and local government planning, and on employment in the construction industry. While
they are busy posturing, blaming each other for reckless overspending or
terrifying gridlock, tradespeople across the nation remain out of work, and
contractors struggle to stay in business. The lack of leadership on both sides
of the aisle and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue is appalling. If you care at
all about the future of the construction economy, get out a pen, some company
letterhead, three envelopes and three stamps, and let your Representative and
both Senators know how you feel.
