DALLAS — The rapidly depleting federal Highway Trust Fund should be replaced with a comprehensive surface Transportation Trust Fund that can invest in rail as well as highways and public transit, the head of Amtrak said on Tuesday.
Amtrak Chief Executive Officer and President Joe Boardman said that instead of finding ways to replenish the HTF, Congress should scrap it in favor of "a balanced surface transportation investment program that can invest in any surface mode."
The HTF, which receives revenues from federal gasoline and diesel taxes, is no longer economically viable because modern cars are more fuel efficient and motorists are driving fewer miles than expected, he said.
"If Congress simply structures a new surface transportation bill around the existing framework of the Highway Trust Fund, we will all lose because nothing worthwhile will change in our national transportation policy," Boardman said.
The current two-year Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) federal highway funding bill will expire at the end of fiscal 2014 on Sept. 30, but the HTF's highway account is likely to "bounce checks by August," according to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
DOT said the highway account may have a $100 million shortfall before the beginning of fiscal 2015, while the mass transit account is expected to end fiscal 2014 with a balance of $400 million.
In a speech earlier this month to the National Press Club, Boardman said the United States is investing barely enough in surface transportation to keep the system moving.
"We are facing a real challenge and the bankruptcy of the Highway Trust Fund is just the tip of the iceberg," he said. "It won't be easy, but if we strive in good faith, we can find a way through to a solution that will give America what it needs."
Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center earlier this week released its annual survey of policy priorities that found 39% of those surveyed in mid- January want Congress to focus on improving roads, bridges, and public transit in 2014. That's up from 30% the center found in January 2013.
That view is shared by 35% of the Republicans surveyed, 46% of Democrats, and 34% of independents, Pew said.
In his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, President Barak Obama called for Congress to act on the next highway funding bill and a water infrastructure bill before the end of fiscal 2014.
"We'll need Congress to protect more than three million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer," he said.
The President revisited previous calls to close provisions in the tax code that make it advantageous for companies to keep their offshore profits, and use those revenues to fund transportation infrastructure projects.
"We can take the money we save with this transition to tax reform to create jobs rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes, because in today's global economy, first-class jobs gravitate to first-class infrastructure," he said.
Transportation infrastructure has emerged as one of the areas where Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill can find common ground, said Pete Ruane, president and CEO of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
Talk about infrastructure funding is fine, Ruane said, but action is needed soon.
"Time is of the essence," he said. "The federal Highway Trust Fund, the source of 52% of all state highway and bridge capital investments, will be unable to support any new improvements in fiscal year 2015, unless the President and Congress act this fall."
