Press Releases

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica rolled out a comprehensive, multi-year transportation reauthorization proposal on Thursday.  Congressman Bucshon is an active member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and worked with Chairman Mica and other Committee members on this proposal.

Congressman Larry Bucshon (IN-08) states:

“Chairman Mica has created a fiscally responsible, job creating transportation proposal that will spend our limited transportation dollars the way they were intended and will also put Americans back to work.  I had the opportunity to bring Chairman Mica to Indiana this past February for a Committee Listening Session because the committee deserved to hear how common sense Hoosier ideas can improve transportation and infrastructure throughout the rest of the nation.  Chairman Mica learned about the great ideas that Governor Daniels and INDOT have implemented in Indiana and has included them in the bill, such as the expansion of public private partnerships.

I’m glad that Chairman Mica has realized that we need certainty in our transportation industry and a six year bill will provide our Indiana companies with the resources to create Hoosier jobs.  We’ve seen how successful a long term transportation plan for transportation projects is with the 10 year plan set forth in the Major Moves project by Governor Daniels and I’m pleased to see the federal government doing the same.”

Background:

The initiative will not only reauthorize and reform the nation’s federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs, but will also make significant improvements to passenger and freight rail programs and maritime and waterborne transportation policy.  This fiscally responsible, multi-modal proposal will streamline federal programs, cut red tape and the bureaucratic project process, better leverage our federal resources, make wise investments in our infrastructure, and provide the long-term predictability that states need to undertake major construction projects.

Proposal highlights include:

·         FUNDING: Authorizes six years of funding for the highway, transit and highway safety programs at funding level consistent to the revenue being brought into the Highway Trust Fund.

·         STREAMLINING: Project delivery will be streamlined by cutting bureaucratic red-tape and delegating more decision making authority to the States and setting hard deadlines for Federal agencies to approve projects

·         REFORM: Consolidate or eliminate over 70 programs that are duplicative or do not serve a federal purpose.

·         LEVERAGING: The bill will leverage existing Federal resources and adopts Federal policies that will entice the private sector to invest in transportation infrastructure

A more detailed presentation of the reauthorization proposal can be found here.

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