With a short-term fix to the looming expiration of funding for the Highway Trust Fund expected shortly, USDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx, and 11 former USDOT Secretaries, have issued an "open letter" to Congress, urging a long-term solution to transportation infrastructure funding. The open letter is attached here.
Foxx and his predecessors emphasize that the expected short term funding does not "fix" America's transportation system. Noting that the USDOT Secretaries have lead the department for 35 years under 7 presidents, they write: "Suffice it to say we've been around the block. We probably helped pave it." The Secretaries also stated, "So it is with some knowledge and experience that we can write: Never in our nation's history has America's transportation system been on a more unsustainable course."
Other highlights from the open letter:
"This is no way to run a railroad, fill a pothole, or repair a bridge. In fact, the unpredictability of when, or if, funding will come has caused states to delay or cancel projects altogether."
"America needs to break this cycle of governing crisis-to-crisis, only to enact a stopgap measure at the last moment. We need to make a commitment to the American people and the American economy."
"Until recently, Congress understood that, as America grows, so must our investments in transportation. And for more than half a century, they have voted for that principle -- and increased funding -- with broad, bipartisan majorities in both houses. We believe they can, and should, do so again."
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