Transportation sec'y upbeat about infrastructure
Source: AP-EXCITE
By JOAN LOWY
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans spend a total of 600,000 years stuck in traffic every year. The nation has about 100,000 bridges old enough for Medicare. And a recent global ranking put the United States' infrastructure in 25th place, just behind Barbados. But Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says he sees signs the nation may finally be ready to tackle its "infrastructure deficit."
One reason for optimism is that some members of Congress are beginning to talk about specific proposals to shore up the federal Highway Trust Fund, which has been teetering on the edge of insolvency for years, Foxx told The Associated Press in an interview.
The fund pays for federal highway and transit aid, as well as many transportation safety programs. It's funded primarily through federal gas and diesel taxes, but revenues haven't kept pace with transportation needs. Without congressional action, the fund could start "bouncing checks" as soon as August, according to a draft of a speech Foxx plans to give to an international gathering of transportation researchers and officials in Washington on Wednesday.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., recently introduced legislation to increase the federal 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax by 15 cents over the next three years, and then index it for inflation. It would raise about $170 billion over the next decade. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has proposed eliminating the per-gallon gas tax and replacing it with a federal sales tax based on a percentage of the price of the gas sold.
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