Shumlin: Small states need transportation bill

• Shumlin was one of several governors who told Congress that uncertainty about federal highway funding is affecting their states.
• The Highway Trust Fund will be short by more than $160 billion over the next 10 years.
• Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans on the committee agreed a long-term highway bill is critical.

WASHINGTON – Colder, rural states like Vermont face special infrastructure challenges and rely more than other states on a steady stream of federal highway funding, Gov. Peter Shumlin told members of a key Senate panel Wednesday.

Shumlin was one of several governors who told members of the the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that uncertainty about federal highway money is profoundly affecting their states. They said Congress needs to pass a long-term transportation bill that would allow them to plan for the future.

"When there is uncertainty about funding ... we're in a terrible position of having to dig for cash that we didn't anticipate we would need, or turning to contractors and saying, 'We can't do the work that we contracted you to do because we're not sure we can pay the bill,'" the Vermont Democrat said.

Last year, the committee passed a measure authorizing federal highway projects for six years, but lawmakers couldn't agree on how to fund it. Instead, Congress passed legislation in August that assures funding only through May.

That bill averted a "catastrophe" but fell short of meeting the country's needs, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told committee members Wednesday. In the last six years, he said, Congress has passed 32 short-term transportation measures that he said are "killing" states' will to build. Congress needs to make a substantially greater investment over time to help the country keep pace with other nations and address an aging transportation system, he said.

"We must do something dramatic," he said. "To hell with the politics."

Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans on the committee agreed a long-term highway bill is critical, but decisions on how to pay for it are more controversial.

The Highway Trust Fund will be short by more than $160 billion over the next 10 years, according to estimates. That's mostly because revenue from the federal gas tax has declined as cars become more efficient.

One option under discussion in Washington is raising the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax, which hasn't been raised since 1993. Other proposals to generate more money for infrastructure projects include closing tax loopholes for companies that do business overseas.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asked Foxx his opinion of a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would invest $1 trillion over five years to rebuild the country's transportation infrastructure. Booker noted that Sanders' plan would spend far more than the administration has sought — and that the national backlog of needed transportation projects amounts to far more than $1 trillion.

"I applaud Sen. Sanders for taking a bold step and actually talking about the needs we actually have," Foxx said.

Sanders said the country's infrastructure is "in many ways collapsing."

RELATED: Sanders has big question for fellow senators

"There is a lot of division in the Congress today, but I would hope that on this issue there is a common understanding that we are doing our kids and grandchildren a great disservice if we don't own up to the infrastructure problems that we have right now," Sanders said at the hearing.

Highlighting Vermont's challenges, Shumlin said rural states have more roads to maintain. Rural roads account for 80 percent of national road work, he said.

In Northeastern states, repeated freezing and thawing takes an "extraordinary toll" on pavement and bridges, Shumlin said. And smaller, rural states depend more on federal help to meet their transportation needs, he said.

"Let's remember that while the rural states have a more intense infrastructure, more miles of road to maintain, we have fewer funding sources to do it," Shumlin said.

Contributing; Mary Troyan, USA Today.

Contact Nicole Gaudiano at ngaudiano@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ngaudiano.