Gas Tax Increase Introduced in the House

AGC CEO Encourages President Obama to Offer HTF Solutions On Wednesday, AGC and other transportation stakeholders joined in support of Oregon Democrat Congressman Earl Blumenauer as he introduced his bill H.R. 3636, the Update, Promote, and Develop America’s Transportation Essentials Act (UPDATE Act) at a press conference at the Capitol.  The bill would phase-in a 15 cent gas tax increase starting in 2014, indexes the gas tax to inflation, and then confirms Congress’s intention to replace the gas tax with a more equitable, stable source of funding by 2024. Although getting the bill to become law is a herculean task, Congressman Blumenauer has started the conversation – Congress and the administration now need to take on the difficult task of finding the revenue necessary to fill the projected annual $15 billion hole facing the Highway Trust Fund in the coming months.   In regards to the bill, AGC CEO Steve Sandherr issued the following statement: “This proposal provides the kind of long-term funding solutions that virtually every commission, including Simpson-Bowles, has said are needed to repair and upgrade our aging transportation network, what the Congressman understands is that simply talking about the need to find new sources of revenue won’t help until we actually identify, support and enact them. A top priority of AGC is to ensure the pending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund is addressed in a responsible fashion and we are committed to work with Congressman Blumenauer and others to find the revenue necessary to avoid the transportation funding cliff facing federal highway and transit programs in 2015.  AGC encourages our members to contact their Representatives and Senators to let them know of the troubles facing the Highway Trust Fund.  More information can be found on AGC’s Legislative Action Center. Also this week, AGC CEO Steve Sandherr sent a letter to President Obama asking him to include revenue option to avoid the upcoming insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund in the administration‘s fiscal year 2015 budget.  To date, the administration has yet to put forth a workable solution to the revenue challenges facing federal highway and transit programs.   AGC feels that it is crucial for the president and Congress to show leadership on this issue and we are committed to working with them to identify a sustainable revenue source for the Highway Trust Fund. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.