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www.concreteproducts.com April 2014 • 15 GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS TRANSPORTATION According to ARTBA, while the Obama Administration should be applauded for coming forward with a surface reauthorization proposal—Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx noting in early March that a formal reauthorization bill will be sent to Congress in the coming months—questions remain about how it will be paid for. The idea of using revenues from tax reform legislation to shore up the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and pay for the next surface authorization has been expressed by both the administration and House Ways and Means Commit- tee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI). Both should be commended for their recognition of the problem, ARTBA notes; however, many in Washington, including members of the House and Senate lead- ership, see no potential of tax reform moving through Congress before the November elections. Therefore, ARTBA members and staff see the need to keep pressing Congress and the White House to come up with a tan- gible plan with actual revenues for the HTF before its projected insolvency in August 2014. The new proposal suggests combining the federal passenger rail program with the highway, transit and safety programs to create one surface transportation authoriza- tion, most of which would be funded out of the HTF. The president proposes augmenting current HTF revenues with $150 billion from "transition revenue generated from pro- growth tax reform." Within the surface transportation proposal, he suggests investing $199.2 billion in activities administered under the Federal Highway Administration. This is a $30.8 bil- lion, or 18 percent, increase over current funding levels plus infation over the four-year life of a bill succeeding MAP-21. While the proposed increase is a welcome step in the right direction, ARTBA affrms, it should be noted that $25.4 billion of the $30.8 increase is slated for investments in new operations beyond the core highway program authorized in MAP-21. This includes $10 billion for a multi-modal freight program and $2 billion for a new competitive program "to incentivize transfor- mative programmatic reforms that improve transportation out- comes" the administration is calling FAST (Fixing and Accelerat- ing Surface Transportation). Also new to the president's plan is a $13.4 billion "Fix-it-First" initiative called the Critical Imme- diate Investments Program. This plan aims to "reduce the num- ber of structurally defcient Interstate Highway System bridges, target safety investments and support a state of good repair on the National Highway System." The federal transit programs would receive $72.3 billion over the four-year life of the proposed law, including $10.8 billion in transit capital grants. This marks a $27.9 billion, or 63 percent, and $2.7 billion, or 33 percent increase, respectively. The administration also calls for $2 billion in FAST program funds for transit, in addition to the $2 billion funded through the highway program. As mentioned previously, the proposal would bring the Federal Railroad Administration into the surface transportation bill, and would authorize $19 billion for passen- ger rail programs. The reauthorization proposal includes $5 billion for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TI- GER) multi-modal, discretionary grant program frst created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and regularly funded through the annual appropriations process since. The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan and loan guarantee program under FHWA would receive $1 billion per year each of the four years of the proposed reau- thorization, the same fnancing level as FY 2014. Concrete Products April 2014.indd 15 4/1/2014 11:38:40 AM