[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 52 (Friday, May 1, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HIGHWAY BILL RESTORES TRUST WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 30, 1998

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, the highway bill recently passed by the 
House takes an important step toward addressing our nation's enormous 
surface transportation needs. In addition to the obvious benefits of 
much higher revenues for better roads and bridges, this legislation 
recognizes that the money in the Highway Trust Fund belongs to the 
American people. Finally, we are returning to the principles that were 
established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for the Highway Trust 
Funds. When Americans pay this tax at the gas pump, they have every 
right to expect that their money actually will be used for 
transportation and not diverted to other purposes. The balance held for 
the Highway Trust Fund has ballooned, and that money has been used for 
government programs and deficit reduction efforts which are not related 
to transportation. It is a violation of the trust of the American 
people when those highway trust funds are used for other purposes.
  This Member encourages his colleagues to read the following opinion 
piece by David R. Kraemer, chairman of the American Road and 
Transportation Builders Association, which appeared in the Omaha World-
Herald on April 27, 1998. It highlights the importance of using the 
money from the Highway Trust Fund in the way it was originally 
intended.

                      Highway Bill Helps Everyone

                         (By David R. Kraemer)

       (The writer is 1998 chairman of the American Road and 
     Transportation Builders Association, the nation's largest 
     organization of highway contractors.)
       A lot of criticism has been flying around during the past 
     few weeks about the federal highway bill, with the media, 
     special interest groups and fiscal hawks all trying to paint 
     the bill as a pork-laden ``budget buster.''
       The finger-pointing obscures what the highway bill is 
     really for: improving our transportation system. Critics of 
     the highway bill are missing--or choosing to ignore--three 
     critical realities.
       One, America's transportation infrastructure is in 
     desperate need of improvement. Two, the highway bill is paid 
     for in advance through fees paid by people who use the 
     system, and the revenues go straight into the Highway Trust 
     Fund expressly for this purpose. Three, improving our 
     highways will save thousands of lives. Plain and simple.
       The first point is obvious to anyone who travels the 
     nation's highways. Across the country, hundreds of thousands 
     of miles of roads and thousands of bridges are in poor 
     condition, posing a danger to drivers and undercutting 
     economic growth. According to the U.S. Department of 
     Transportation, 59 percent of the nation's major roads are in 
     poor or mediocre condition, and 31 percent of our bridges are 
     structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
       The Department of Transportation also says we must spend 
     $46.1 billion annually just to maintain our highways and 
     bridges, let alone make improvements or upgrades. Clearly, 
     funding road repair and improvement should be a top priority 
     for the federal government.
       Fortunately, the dollars Congress is committing to the 
     program are available from a reliable source--highway users.
       The most misunderstanding issue related to the highway bill 
     is where the money--all $200 billion plus--is coming from. It 
     comes from all of us who use the roads, through taxes paid at 
     the gas pump and through other road-related assessments. For 
     every gallon of gas purchased, 18.3 cents is deposited into 
     the Highway Trust Fund, which by law is supposed to be used 
     for transportation improvements.
       Unfortunately, billions of dollars have been allowed to 
     accumulate in the trust fund and mask deficit spending 
     elsewhere in the federal budget. More than $25 billion is 
     sitting in the trust fund now, unspent on road and bridge 
     repair.
       If people want to criticize Congress about the highway 
     bill, the issue is not how much they want to spend but how 
     little. By keeping dollars in the trust fund that were 
     intended to go toward road and bridge improvement. Congress 
     is short-changing America's highway users.
       The fact is, improving highways will save lives. Research 
     shows that for every $1 billion spent since 1955 on improving 
     the nation's highways, 1,400 traffic deaths and 50,000 
     injuries have been avoided. The Transportation Department 
     estimates that every year 30 percent of all traffic 
     fatalities--more than 12,000 American deaths--are related in 
     some way to poor road conditions. Adding turning lanes, 
     widening shoulders, constructing lane barriers, improving 
     signage and safety markings and repairing dangerous bridges 
     all are important safety upgrades proven to save lives.
       When a bridge collapses and lives are lost, the story makes 
     the evening news and a hue and cry is raised about how to 
     prevent it from happening again. The answer lives in 
     Washington and in the thousands of repair and improvement 
     projects authorized in the federal highway bill that are now 
     being so roundly criticized. Unfortunately, all the political 
     squabbling diverts attention from these real issues.
       So who benefits from the highway bill? Everyone. 
     Communities grow, commercial and private transportation 
     becomes easier and more efficient, and thousands of new jobs 
     are created. Moreover, improving our transportation system 
     will save billions of dollars from being lost each year in 
     wasted productivity, vehicle maintenance, insurance fees and, 
     tragically, health care expenses to care for people injured 
     on our highways.

     

                          ____________________