DALLAS -- An advertising campaign targeting nine key congressional leaders and financed by two transportation advocacy groups warns voters that the uncertainty about future federal highway and transit funding will cause more states to delay or cancel projects.
The 30-second radio ads from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association and the American Public Transportation Association call for Congress to pass a multiyear transportation bill by this summer with increased funding for highways and transit.
The summer 2015 construction season has already been disrupted, with states deferring more than $1 billion of scheduled projects, the groups said.
The ads ran on 10 radio stations in states and districts represented by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Ky., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
The effort also was focused on committee leaders responsible for finding the revenue needed for a long-term transportation bill, including Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the top Democrat on that committee.
The radio ads began airing May 7 and ran through May 9.
The groups said the broadcast campaign was timed to coincide with the May 31 expiration of the latest short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund. They want Congress to agree on a sustainable funding source for the HTF and then pass a multiyear transportation bill with higher funding than in fiscal 2015.
Congress and the executive branch have added more than $50 billion to the national debt over the past seven years "just to maintain current road and public transit funding. Now they're talking about doing it again," the ad said.
A month-long patch wouldn't require additional revenue, but keeping the HTF solvent through the end of 2015 as proposed by Hatch would require an $11 billion transfer from the general fund. Cash balances in the HTF should be sufficient to continue the flow of federal reimbursements to states for highway and transit project through the end of June.
"It's guaranteeing our kids will have worse debt, traffic congestion, and poor infrastructure," the ad said. "Tell [Congressman or Senator] you're tired of funny money politics and budget schemes on transportation. It's not fair to our kids."
General fund transfers to the HTF began in 2008 as gasoline and diesel tax collections failed to cover expenditures. The taxes generate about $40 billion a year while federal transportation funding totals more than $50 billion annually. The current extension approved in late July 2014 required a $10.8 billion transfer.
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee, said on May 7 that Hatch was "on the right path" with his proposal to extend the HTF through the end of calendar 2015 and then adopt a five- to six-year transportation bill in the fall.
An umbrella organization helmed by ARTBA criticized Hatch's plan for a yearend extension in a letter to House and Senate leaders.
The Transportation Trade Coalition's message to McConnell, Boehner, Pelosi, and Reid said there have been more than 30 extensions of federal highway and transit funding since 2009, with five cash flow crises requiring $65 billion in general fund transfers since 2008.
"The next surface transportation extension should be of limited duration and include an explicit timeline detailing when the tax committees and the full Congress will act to generate the revenues needed to stabilize and grow highway and transit investment," the letter said.
