New Democrat Coalition Statement on Passage Transportation Package
Washington, DC – Today, on a vote of 359-65 the House passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, bipartisan legislation to provide much-needed stability to America’s infrastructure by authorizing surface transportation projects for five years, shoring up the Highway Trust Fund, and reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.
“Today’s long-term transportation legislation shows that with bipartisan compromise we can take commonsense steps to address problems that have seemed intractable for years,” said Coalition Chairman Ron Kind. “This legislation gives local and state officials the certainty they need to move forward on transportation and infrastructure projects that are vital to creating jobs in western and central Wisconsin.”
“Job-creating investments in our roads, bridges, highways, ferries, trails, and transit got the green light today with a long-term transportation bill that will put people to work and keep our economy moving,” said New Dem Trade, Critical Infrastructure, and Manufacturing Task Force Co-Chair Rick Larsen, who also serves as a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “My top priority is creating jobs and investing in the foundation of long-term economic growth in the Pacific Northwest. We cannot have a big league economy with little league infrastructure. This long-term transportation bill will help our country make the right investments to keep our economy growing.”
Earlier this year, the Coalition sent letters to Speaker Boehner in September and October outlining priorities for the fall and calling for a long-term fix for the country’s infrastructure. With the demand for infrastructure repairs far stripping the available funding, today’s vote will help strengthen the economy by taking steps toward a long-term surface transportation authorization and advancing priorities critical to economic competitiveness such as the Export-Import Bank.
“Congress will finally green light Ex-Im to go in and to help these companies get their products out of the warehouses and into the hands of global purchasers,” said Coalition Member Denny Heck, who helped lead the effort to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank. “Once the President signs this bill into law, the Export-Import Bank can once again get American goods sold to customers around the world. This is a victory for our export economy, which includes everything from music stands to wide body jets in Washington state. But let’s be clear that this needless delay harmed small businesses mightily for months, and we can never let it happen again.”
Despite today’s positive action, overall transportation funding remains inadequate and the need for continual, robust funding will only grow. Earlier stop-gap measures were irresponsible, damaged our economy, and shortchanged work to build a 21st Century transportation system – the FAST Act moves beyond those short-sighted fixes, but is still a first step toward true long-term infrastructure funding. To maintain our competitive edge, we need to build on today’s vote to meet increasing demands for better roads, faster trains, and a modern transportation system.
The Coalition’s American Prosperity Agenda, released earlier this year, calls for growing the economy across the country by investing in better roads, bridges, and rails systems and ensuring we have the capacity to pursue export opportunities.
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