One vote, one voice for roads

By: Larry Flynn

Election Day-Tuesday, November 5-is less than a month away. Whether you plan on voting for President Bill Clinton or former Sen. Robert Dole, the important thing is to remember to vote. In an effort to arm our readers with information before they go off to the voting booth, ROADS & BRIDGES has queried the Clinton and Dole campaigns on several issues of import to the highway industry. Their responses on such matters as support for highway funding, reauthorization of ISTEA and affirmative action are included for your review (see Presidential Politics and Construction).

While both candidates have positives and negatives about their stances on some issues, for our part at ROADS & BRIDGES, the Dole camp won the race when it came to responding to our questions. Perhaps the Clinton camp is getting a little too comfortable with its lead in the waning days of the campaign.

The old saying, 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease,' seems to be true, at least when it comes to obtaining fair-share funding for highways. On Sept. 18, a House-Senate conference committee passed the fiscal year 1997 (FY 97) U.S. DOT appropriations bill, containing a record amount of spending authority for highways-$20.3 billion. The amount represents a $450 million (2%) increase over the FY 96 total.

Those in attendance at the mid-year meeting of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), including T. Peter Ruane, the association's executive director, attributed the good showing for highway appropriations to the industry's active role in several legislative battles waged this year. Specifically, Ruane and others cited the industry's fight to have the Highway Trust Fund placed off budget. The industry's work to redirect the 4.3 cent per gallon gas tax, presently being used to reduce the federal deficit, to the Highway Trust Fund also was cited as an attention-getting effort.

It seems the action taken this year by the industry as whole helped draw attention to the challenge the highway industry is facing in designing, building and maintaining an efficient and safe national highway system with lacking funds. This demonstrates that when this industry speaks with a collective voice on important issues such as these the powers that be on Capitol Hill listen.

The bill, which cleared both houses in a single day, passed the House by a vote of 395-19 and the Senate by a vote of 85-14. According to industry officials, President Clinton was expected to sign the bill by early October. According to the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials, the breakdown of the funds in the bill (H.R. 3675) is as follows: $18 billion in obligation authority for the core highway program; $2.055 billion in programs exempt from the obligation ceiling; and $228 million in motor carrier funding for a total of $20.3 billion.