DALLAS -- Mayors plan to unleash a coast-to-coast, community-based political push during Congress's two-week Easter recess for increased federal transportation funding in a new multiyear highway and transit bill.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors will hold simultaneous events across the country at local congressional offices on April 9 in cooperation with local business, civic, religious, and labor leaders, said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, chairman of the group's Cities of Opportunity task force.
"We will go to the elected officials at their home district offices and tell them how crucial it is to fund transportation at a higher level," de Blasio said at a press conference in Boston's Faneuil Hall. "If we don't invest in infrastructure in this country we will literally fall behind."
The April district office visits will be followed by a similar gathering in Washington to meet with lawmakers during the week of May 12 when Congress is back in session, he said.
"We will have a strong presence in Washington, D.C., to get this country back into the business of investing in infrastructure," de Blasio said. "It will be on a scale not seen in many years, and we believe it will register deeply with Congress."
The 15 city leaders at the press conference included the mayors of Boston, Baltimore, Seattle, New Orleans, Austin, Minneapolis, Memphis, and Salt Lake City.
The mayors' group wants more federal assistance with large transit projects, and more locally focused funding in the new transportation bill, he said.
"It's time for Congress to truly invest in the future of our cities and our nation by passing a bill that increases federal transportation funding," de Blasio said. "We'll be making that clear ?with direct action in our cities and in Washington."
The latest 10-month extension of the Highway Trust Fund's solvency will expire May 31 unless Congress passes either a multiyear transportation bill or the latest of a series of short-term patches.
Funding adequate investments in transportation infrastructure is a joint responsibility among federal, state, and local governments, said Boston Mayor Martin Walsh.
Walsh said the harsh winter in Boston caused an estimated $3 billion in damages to city bridges and the rail system operated by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority that will require expensive upgrades or replacements.
"What's happening here in the city of Boston, with the MBTA, it can't be saved by the legislature, can't be saved by the cities," he said. "It has to be a federal fix."
The mayors want a long-term bill with much higher funding, de Blasio said.
Federal funding in fiscal 2015 of $41 billion for highways and $10.9 billion for mass transit is not enough money, de Blasio said.
"If we keep the funding at the same level it's been stuck at for 13 years, we'll be falling behind," he said. "We won't be competitive. The nation won't be competitive."
De Blasio said he supports President Obama's proposed six-year Grow America Act that would raise federal transportation funding to $80 billion a year.
"We're looking for the most substantial increase we can achieve," he said. "We're going to push for the highest number attainable."
Inadequate transportation funding is hurting America's economic competitiveness, de Blasio said.
"Look around the world at our competitor nations," he said. "They are investing in new, shiny infrastructure, and we're trying to just patch things up."
"The status quo is simply unacceptable," Blasio said.
