[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 122 (Monday, September 15, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1750-E1751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              A TRUST FUND INVESTMENT IN AMERICA'S FUTURE

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                          HON. THOMAS E. PETRI

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 15, 1997

  Mr. PETRI. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to call my colleagues' attention to 
an article published in today's Washington Post, written by Congressman 
Bud Shuster, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure 
Committee. Chairman Shuster makes a compelling case not only for the 
need to invest in our Nation's infrastructure but to do so by utilizing 
the highway trust fund, into which Americans pay their gas taxes. By 
unlocking the trust fund, as Chairman Shuster notes, we can make our 
highways and transit systems safer and more efficient.
  As we undertake our reauthorization of the Nation's surface 
transportation program, Chairman Shuster's article is necessary 
reading.

               [From the Washington Post, Sept. 15, 1997]

                      Money To Get America Moving

                            (By Bud Shuster)

       The Post can't have it both ways--disdaining the spending 
     of gas-tax dollars to build America's highways [``The Highway 
     Bill,'' editorial, Sept. 7] while decrying in numerous news 
     stories the growing congestion on the region's highways, the 
     looming crisis of Washington's transit system and the need 
     for a billion-dollar replacement of the Woodrow Wilson 
     bridge. Beyond the Beltway, America is also growing and 
     prospering, but our transportation infrastructure is 
     crumbling.
       A 70 percent increase in Asian trade is jamming Seattle's 
     port and snarling traffic at 45 railroad crossings. The 
     antiquated roads of the no-longer sleepy Rio Grande valley 
     are clogged by a 250 percent increase in Mexican-Texan trade. 
     Miami is exploding, with traffic on its main east-west 
     corridor projected to increase by 120 percent and its 
     population projected to increase by 60 percent by the year 
     2010.
       In the past decade, New York has had a 2 percent increase 
     in population but a 27 percent increase in vehicle miles 
     traveled; Illinois, a 3 percent increase in population but a

[[Page E1751]]

     33 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled; Virginia, a 16 
     percent increase in population but a 46 percent increase in 
     vehicle miles traveled; and, California, a 20 percent 
     increase in population but a 33 percent increase in vehicle 
     miles traveled. Comparable population-to-transportation 
     growth ratios exist in almost every state.
       Urban congestion costs $43 billion annually, our 23 largest 
     airports each experience more than 200,000 hours in delays 
     annually and 30 percent of our 42,000 annual highway 
     fatalities are caused by unsafe roads and bridges. According 
     to the U.S. Department of Transportation, we need to invest 
     $16 billion more annually in our highways, $10 billion more 
     in our airports and $13 billion more in transit. The good 
     news is the gas, airline ticket and related taxes 
     Americans are paying into transportation trust funds are 
     adequate to begin meeting these needs.
       The bad news is that the money is not being spent as 
     promised when the transportation trust funds were 
     established.
       The transportation trust funds have $32 billion in unspent 
     balances, and those balances will increase to more than $105 
     billion in five years if nothing changes. And by law, the 
     trust fund revenues can be spent only on transportation 
     infrastructure.
       The Building Efficient Surface Transportation & Equity Act 
     of 1997 (BESTEA) will put the trust back into the 
     transportation trust funds by unlocking those funds to be 
     spent as they were intended. Annual gas taxes and related 
     user fees going into the Highway Trust Fund support 
     increasing highway spending from $4 billion to $6 billion 
     annually, without touching the $32 billion balance in the 
     transportation trust funds. In fact, the spending levels in 
     BESTEA will cause the trust fund balances to rise to $59 
     billion in five years. But that's a battle for the future.
       BESTEA is also good transportation policy and has the 
     widespread support of environmentalists, the National League 
     of Cities, the National Association of State Legislatures and 
     hundreds of others groups. Moreover, the National Governors' 
     Association has urged us to go even further than BESTEA spend 
     the surplus and all future revenue flowing into the Highway 
     Trust Fund.
       We can keep faith with the American people by spending 
     their trust fund gas taxes to improve roads, bridges and 
     transit systems while balancing the budget. Both the Office 
     of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office 
     have indicated that the five-year budget plan underestimated 
     federal revenues by $135 billion. Fully funding BESTEA 
     transportation trust funds spending by about $25 billion over 
     five years--only 18 percent of the assumed revenues--so no 
     other programs will need to be cut to stay within the five-
     year deficit-reduction plan. This is an investment in our 
     future that can and should be made.

     

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