SPECIAL: TTV Reports on Looming Crisis for Trust Fund in Countdown to Expiration

A special report by AASHTO’s Transportation TV examines the latest crisis facing the nation’s infrastructure system as Congress heads toward a July 31 deadline to reauthorize the Highway Trust Fund.

That trust fund reimburses state departments of transportation for their capital improvements to the federal-aid highway network, and provides a major portion of the federal support to transit agencies across the country.

 Tymon: We’re at the cliff again.

Congress earlier extended the HTF for two months from its May 31 expiration, and now lawmakers must decide whether to embrace a long-term reauthorization or extend it for perhaps a few more months.

But there is also the risk that Congress could find itself running out of time to agree on a strategy before a scheduled August recess, or that opponents of another short extension could block one, and lawmakers could leave for a long summer break without passing needed legislation.

Jim Tymon, AASHTO’s chief operating officer, told TTV: “We’re about to go over the cliff yet again.” If Congress does not act, he said, the U.S. Department of Transportation “will have to delay payments to states for projects that they’ve already completed.

“That’s a very serious problem for state DOTs and local transit agencies,” he added, “because they’ll be left on the hook for obligations that the federal government has already agreed to pay.”

The TTV report shows recent testimony before Congress by state agency CEOs, who emphasized the importance of Congress providing a strong federal transportation investment program.

And Lloyd Brown, AASHTO’s communications director, said, “We are looking for America to continue to invest in infrastructure, to be great as a nation. And so we’re asking Congress, and people who work with Congress, to think big, and to fund the trust fund.”