Donohue: Highway and Transit Bill Will Create Jobs, Enhance America’s Competitiveness, and Bring Needed Reforms

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The bipartisan highway and transit bill will create jobs, enhance America’s competitiveness, bring needed reforms to transportation spending, and should be immediately signed by the president, according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue.

“In the near term, this legislation will save thousands of jobs in construction and related industries,” said Donohue. “In the long term, it will strengthen the nation’s economy and global competitiveness. The president should sign it immediately.”

The legislation overwhelmingly passed both the House and Senate containing a number of reforms long supported by the U.S. Chamber, including: consolidating overlapping and duplicative federal programs; streamlining the project delivery process; giving states the flexibility to target federal funds where they are most needed; and helping to draw more private investment into infrastructure.

The bill also includes the RESTORE Act, a Chamber-supported economic and ecological restoration project that will create badly needed private sector jobs in the hard-hit Gulf Coast region.

“While we would have preferred a bill covering a period longer than 27 months and with greater funding, this is a major step in the right direction,” said Donohue. “The bigger challenge lies ahead—devising a predictable, sustainable, and growing source of dedicated, user-fee based funding to ensure we have adequate resources to maintain the world’s greatest infrastructure system for decades to come. We promise to work with members of Congress to pursue that important goal.”

“While we would have preferred a bill covering a period longer than 27 months and with greater funding, this is a major step in the right direction,” said Donohue. “The bigger challenge lies ahead—devising a predictable, sustainable, and growing source of dedicated, user-fee based funding to ensure we have adequate resources to maintain the world’s greatest infrastructure system for decades to come. We promise to work with members of Congress to pursue that important goal.”