Skip to main content

Foxx pushes Congress to pass transportation funding

US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx has called for lawmakers to pass a multi-year infrastructure funding bill, saying the cycle of temporary extensions is killing states' willingness for road and transit projects. It has been ten years since Congress last passed a transportation funding bill of longer than two years. "Last year we sent Congress a comprehensive multiyear proposal, the Grow America Act, which included 350 pages of precise policy prescriptions and substantial funding growth, all foc
January 30, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx has called for lawmakers to pass a multi-year infrastructure funding bill, saying the cycle of temporary extensions is killing states' willingness for road and transit projects.

It has been ten years since Congress last passed a transportation funding bill of longer than two years.

"Last year we sent Congress a comprehensive multiyear proposal, the Grow America Act, which included 350 pages of precise policy prescriptions and substantial funding growth, all focused on the future," he said during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about transportation funding issues.  

He said the extension passed by Congress last year ‘averted a catastrophe but fell short’ of meeting the country’s needs. "It was not the first short-term measure, or patch, that has been passed,” he claimed. “It was, by my count, the 32nd in the last six years. And as a former mayor, I can tell you these short-term measures are doing to America what the state [Department of Transportation] says they're doing in Tennessee, literally killing their will to build."

Related Content

  • Good money after bad
    February 27, 2012
    Fundamentally, as human beings, we tend to want much the same things
  • ITS America focuses on the environment
    March 13, 2012
    ITS America's appointment of a Director of Environmental Affairs signals a major new focus
  • Infrastructure funding and road user charging – debate continues
    February 1, 2012
    Jack Opiola provides an overview of the ongoing debate over US infrastructure funding and the progress – or lack of it – towards vehicles miles travelled road user charging. The future funding of transportation and mobility infrastructure is attracting increased attention. There has been sharp debate in the US, where landmark reports from the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission and the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission both stated that the cu
  • US transportation 'needs political leadership'
    November 9, 2012
    Long-time industry leader John Worthington reflects on where transportation in the US is heading – and where it should be going. Interview with Jason Barnes. The US’s new transportation bill reflects much of what is wrong in the sector in general and in ITS in particular, according to John Worthington. While a decision is welcome, he says, it does little more than provide certainty of funding for anything other than day-to-day operations. Worthington, former Chairman and CEO of TransCore, is back in the ITS