Transportation secretary: U.S. needs major highway bill

WASHINGTON — The nation's transportation system is threatened by short-term federal funding measures and will be "in trouble" unless it gets more money, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told USA TODAY reporters Wednesday.

Uncertainty resulting from the lack of a long-term transportation bill has cost jobs and has left state and local transportation officials unsure how to finance projects that will take years to complete, he said.

"This issue affects every community, every user of our system, whether they're driving, whether they're using transit in some way," Foxx said. "And I don't see how we can get through this in a good way as a country without Congress coming to the table and actually passing a long-term transportation bill."

Congress passed its latest short-term fix in August, but that measure assures funding only through May. Democrats and Republicans don't agree on how to pay for projects that would be part of a long-term bill.

In New Jersey, critical projects that require long-term planning and financing include the Gateway project to build new rail tunnels to New York City, according to aides for Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

"They are the kinds of critical, large-scale projects that require long-term planning," said Steven Sandberg, a Menendez spokesman. "Each one of these projects would take several years to complete. Funding year-to-year isn't going to cut it."

Foxx said he's "hopeful" Congress can move forward during the lame-duck session, but he's prepared for the possibility that a long-term bill won't come until next year. In that event, committee work on such a bill would have to start over in the 114th Congress, when Republicans will control the Senate and have a larger majority in the House.

Aging infrastructure is a bipartisan problem, Foxx said.

"Democrats and Republicans are stuck in traffic. Democrats and Republicans are stuck on potholes," Foxx said. "Democrats and Republicans are actually paying the cost of a system that's failing us because they're having to repair their cars more frequently, they're having to realize expenses they wouldn't have to realize if the system were better maintained and if we were putting new capacity out there."

Foxx said communities already are seeing the impact of cumulative short-term funding measures. Transportation officials in Tennessee say they will delay projects worth $400 million, he said, and "that's not the last shoe to drop on this issue."

The country's growing population will put increasing pressure on the transportation system, especially as construction projects are pulled back.

"That's setting us up as a country to see the gridlock in Washington translate into gridlock for the whole country," he said. "Not where we want to be."