Americans for Transportation Mobility Letter Urging Congress to Provide Badly Needed Investments in the U.S. Transportation System

January 21, 2010

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS:

With the widespread disrepair of America's infrastructure and continuing economic challenges, the Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) Coalition strongly urges Congress to provide badly needed investments in the U.S. transportation system – improving Americans' way of life and creating jobs in the process. Data clearly demonstrates that the funding Congress provided last year as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) played a vital role in supporting the transportation construction sector and its suppliers and helping set the groundwork for economic recovery.

Last year, the ATM strongly supported ARRA which provided $48.1 billion for transportation investments in highways, transit, roads, bridges, and airport construction and maintenance to help spur job creation. Based on data received by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as of November 30, 2009:

• Of the $34.3 billion provided for highway and transit formula programs under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), $24.8 billion, or 72 percent, had been put out to bid on 11,304 projects;
• 9,542 projects (totaling $21.4 billion) were under contract (62 percent);
• 8,587 projects totaling $19.7 billion had begun work; and
• These highway and transit projects have created or sustained more than 250,000 direct, on-project jobs and over 760,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.

While some in Congress have recently argued to the contrary, the fact is that these investments provided a needed lifeline for the transportation construction industry and their suppliers and we thank those members who supported these critical efforts. Transportation investment has been—and the ATM firmly believes should remain—a bipartisan issue because transportation investments improve the quality of life, safety, and economic competitiveness of all Americans. We will reject any effort to make these vital investments a partisan issue by either party.

As Congress works to address persistent unemployment, the ATM Coalition strongly urges you to build on what was provided through the ARRA by supporting additional near-term investment for highways and public transportation while simultaneously making every effort to restore certainty to the underlying federal transportation programs.

Sincerely,

Americans for Transportation Mobility