AISC is supporting ARTBA’s (American Road & Transportation Builders Association) grassroots effort to impact infrastructure activity. As such, AISC is encouraging everyone to visit ARTBA’s Grassroots Action Center, which will automatically send an email message, a tweet and Facebook post, to your representative and two senators.
The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate won’t reconvene until early January and when they do, there’s a lot of work to get done. AISC encourages everyone to contact their congressional representatives and senators while they’re back home about a host of unresolved issues.
ARTBA offers the following advice:
- First, please thank them for the December 2015 passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, but also explain that the job’s not close to being done. Before adjourning, Congress passed a government-wide spending proposal that would delay roughly $1.5 billion in highway and public transportation investment increases until at least seven months into FY 2017. The proposal would hold virtually all federal programs at the FY 2016 level through the end of April. Consider conveying that you expect Congress to live up to the letter of the FAST Act law and restore those funding levels next year.
- Second, please ask them to lead in fixing the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and doing so in a manner that will support growing highway and public transportation investment. Simply maintaining the status quo, as Congress has done in the last two bills, will not create jobs or boost the U.S. economy.
- Third, please tell them they will have an opportunity to deliver permanent transportation revenue reform as part of any final tax package or infrastructure initiative that goes to President Trump in 2017. Both vehicles are appropriate for fixing the HTF shortfall once and for all and providing the expanded investment necessary to support President Trump’s spot-on vision for doing what is necessary to upgrade our commerce-critical transportation corridors.
Face-to-face contact with elected officials during a holiday party or town hall meeting is the best way to discuss these issues, when possible.