Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker delivered a message before the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, which stressed treating roads and bridges projects as a national concern.
Becker urged Congress to pass the Obama administration's $317 billion highway and transportation plan that would help rebuild crumbling roads and bridges, and improve rail service.
In his testimony, Becker also said Congress needs to ensure that transportation funding reaches local governments as well as state agencies.
"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."
There is no time like the present to make a national, long-term highway funding bill a reality. Becker also brought up how states are losing confidence for such a wide scale measure.
“Spring starts in a week and that is really the start of the traditional construction season for the year,” he said. “States have already notified the federal government they will be delaying or postponing or cancelling projects and I expect the number of those will grow very quickly in coming weeks if we do not have a short-term bill.
