U.S. Chamber Statement on EPW Committee’s Progress on Surface Transportation Legislation
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director of Transportation & Infrastructure Janet Kavinoky, issued the following response today regarding the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee bipartisan statement on draft legislation for surface transportation:
“We are very pleased that the Senate EPW Committee has made significant progress toward the introduction of a bipartisan surface transportation bill. It is critically important to begin the legislative debate on highway, transit, and other surface transportation programs.
“Federal highway and transit programs expire on September 30 and must be replaced with a multi-year law that includes policy and program reforms and the resources needed to address critical transportation needs. The outline released by the committee appears to track with many of the Chamber’s priorities for reauthorization including consolidating, focusing and making programs more effective; leveraging Federal funding and promoting public-private partnerships; speeding project delivery; and improving the performance of transportation infrastructure that facilitates goods movement.
“The Chamber is particularly pleased that EPW does not intend to let overall funding levels drop below current services and accepts the challenge of identifying resources to maintain the Federal commitment to surface transportation funding. We encourage EPW and the other authorizing committees to work closely with the Finance Committee to find the resources needed to not only prevent cuts in Federal investment levels but to provide the additional investments needed to improve transportation system performance that will grow the U.S. economy.
“We look forward to seeing the EPW committee proposal in detail, along with the complementary titles from the other committees of jurisdiction.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.
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