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Washington • Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker urged Congress on Tuesday to pass the Obama administration's ambitious plan to boost transportation funding nationwide to help rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, and to improve rail service.
In testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Becker also argued that the GOP-led Congress needs to ensure that transportation funding gets steered to local governments and not just to state agencies because the latter tend to focus on auto-oriented projects.
"Congress ought to fix this imbalance," Becker, president of the National League of Cities, told the committee. "The next transportation bill should directly allocate greater funding to local governments and provide more flexibility for local decision makers to choose the best mix of transportation options to fit regional needs."
Becker, a Democrat, said the Obama administration's Grow America Act — which proposes $317 billion for highway upgrades and $18 billion for fixing the nation's freight-transportation system — would provide a good starting point for discussions on how to tackle growing needs for better roads, bridges, rail lines and ports.
"We are hopeful that both chambers of Congress and the administration can work productively together to craft a legislative solution that avoids the chaos and crisis we would endure if our surface transportation-program authorization is permitted to expire," Becker said.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory also testified Tuesday, pushing as well the need for long-term transportation funding but arguing for another bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, a product of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, that focuses on money for highway improvements but not rail or passenger service.
McCrory, a Republican, said that U.S. leaders need to take ownership of roads that need upgrades. He noted that in his state parts of highways go from two lanes to four lanes, then back to two lanes.
"And everywhere it gets wider, it's named for a politician or a Department of Transportation board member," McCrory said. "And where the congestion chokepoints still exist, the road is nameless."