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Grassroots Alert: Ask Congress to Make the Highway Bill a Priority!
Instead of passing legislation for a multi-year transportation bill, Congress has passed a series of short-term extensions of spending authority, with the latest extension expiring on December 31, 2010. In addition, spending out of the Highway Trust Fund has exceeded revenue since 2004. Congressional inaction on the surface transportation bill is leaving our roads and bridges woefully underfunded, undermining plans to address commuter and shipping bottlenecks, forcing even more construction layoffs and threatening our ability to compete against foreign economic rivals like China and India. We need to put pressure on Congress to act now. For more information on our coordinated campaign, visit www.fasterbettersafer.org. Who We Are The Americans for Transportation Mobility Coalition’s FasterBetterSafer Campaign is a nationwide effort by business, labor, transportation organizations and concerned citizens to advocate for increased federal investment in the nation’s aging and overburdened transportation system. The FasterBetterSafer Campaign will demonstrate to leaders in Washington the groundswell of public support for making transportation a national priority. We believe the deterioration of the nation’s transportation system jeopardizes our safety, threatens our quality of life, undermines the economy and harms the environment. That’s a price we are unwilling to pay. Our elected officials must take action to repair, rebuild and revitalize the nation’s roads, bridges and public transportation systems. Our leaders will act after they are convinced that transportation has become a top-line policy concern. Why We Must Act The United States needs a transportation system that moves its people and delivers goods in a timely—and safe—manner. We must connect workers with employers, employers with suppliers, and businesses with their customers. A major transportation study recently estimated that $225 billion is required annually from all levels of government to maintain and improve our surface transportation systems. We have a roughly $60 billion investment gap. The costs of inaction are much higher. In 2006, traffic crashes killed 42,642 people in the U.S.—about 117 deaths per day, nearly five every hour. One-third of those fatalities are due to poorly maintained roads. That’s a national disgrace. The cost of traffic crashes nationwide is $164.2 billion a year. Traffic congestion sucked $78 billion from the economy in 2005, added 4.2 billion hours in commuter time and wasted almost three billion gallons of gasoline. Those idling automobiles pumped thousands of pounds of pollutants into the air. Congestion also exacts huge costs on business. If the economy grows three percent a year, domestic freight traffic may double, disrupting supply chains and cargo shipments unless capacity is increased. Failure to invest in our transportation system also means we will lose jobs and industries to global competitors that have made building and rebuilding an economic priority. On the other hand, transportation investment grows the economy. Each dollar invested in highway construction generates $1.80 of Gross Domestic Product according to Standard & Poor’s DRI. Every dollar taxpayers invest in public transportation generates about $6 in economic returns, reports Cambridge Systematics. Increased investment in transportation stimulates the economy and reduces the draconian costs imposed by congestion, pollution and needless fatalities. Management Committee The ATM Management Committee provides the leadership, direction and annual financial support to the FasterBetterSafer Campaign. American Public Transportation Association Any association is eligible to join the ATM Management Committee. For more information, please contact ATM Executive Director Janet Kavinoky at jkavinoky@uschamber.com. |
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