State of the Union Calls for Transportation Authorization, Offers No Funding Solution

As he has done in the past, President Obama used his State of the Union address to show his support for infrastructure without offering any concrete ways to responsibly pay for the investments needed for the nation’s aging roads, bridges, ports, airports, waterways, and water systems. While the president did call on Congress to complete action on the pending surface transportation reauthorization bill and water resources bill, he offered no new funding ideas on how to address our nation’s long-term infrastructure needs.  He pointed to corporate tax reform as the way to “create jobs rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, and unclogging our commutes.” However, Republicans in Congress agree that any tax reform effort should be revenue-neutral and that eliminating deductions and preferences should only be used to lower the rates for all businesses and not for unrelated spending. AGC issued a statement in response to the State of the Union and looks forward to the administration’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal, which will hopefully provide more details on how to provide the investment necessary to responsibly deal with pressing infrastructure needs, including addressing the revenue shortfall facing the Highway Trust Fund. Two of AGC’s top legislative priorities are passing a water resources bill and fixing the Highway Trust Fund.  We encourage AGC chapters and members to visit our Legislative Action Center and contact their members of Congress to ask them to complete work on WRDA and address the revenue problems facing the Highway Trust Fund.