The head of the Wyoming Department of Transportation urged Congress this month to take account of rural roads and what they mean for the country overall when passing an infrastructure bill, Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder.
“Significant federal investment in highways and transportation in rural states is a sound policy that must be continued, for many reasons,” K. Luke Reiner said in prepared testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on July 10. “Consider truck movements from West Coast ports to Chicago or the East Coast. These and other movements traverse states like ours and benefit people and commerce in the metropolitan areas at both ends of the journey. In Wyoming, about 90 percent of trucks on Interstate 80 have origins and destinations beyond Wyoming’s borders. This is clearly national transportation and warrants federal investment.”
Reiner said rural states have a dwindling tax base for road and bridge work, and their residents have a high per-capita expense for the country’s transportation system; he noted that Wyoming's is highest at $312 per person, followed by the Dakota and Montana. The national average is $117.
President Trump once talked about passing an infrastructure bill, but that seems unlikely anytime soon because of Republican resistance to the taxes that would be needed to fund it. However, the law that funds and provides oversight for the Highway Trust Fund expires Sept. 30, 2020, so Congress will have to take some action on that front in the next 14 months.
Part of that debate will be environmental policy for highway projects. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who chairs the committee, favors streamlining the environmental permit approval process for major projects. but Sen. Tom Carper, D-Maryland, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said climate-change policy should be part of the legislation.
Wildlife migration is another consideration in rural areas, said Carlos Braceras, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “The infrastructure system that we’ve built over the last 100 years is not the infrastructure system that we’re going to need for the next 100 years,” Braceras testified. “It needs to change and we need to help it adapt.”
“Significant federal investment in highways and transportation in rural states is a sound policy that must be continued, for many reasons,” K. Luke Reiner said in prepared testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on July 10. “Consider truck movements from West Coast ports to Chicago or the East Coast. These and other movements traverse states like ours and benefit people and commerce in the metropolitan areas at both ends of the journey. In Wyoming, about 90 percent of trucks on Interstate 80 have origins and destinations beyond Wyoming’s borders. This is clearly national transportation and warrants federal investment.”
Reiner said rural states have a dwindling tax base for road and bridge work, and their residents have a high per-capita expense for the country’s transportation system; he noted that Wyoming's is highest at $312 per person, followed by the Dakota and Montana. The national average is $117.
President Trump once talked about passing an infrastructure bill, but that seems unlikely anytime soon because of Republican resistance to the taxes that would be needed to fund it. However, the law that funds and provides oversight for the Highway Trust Fund expires Sept. 30, 2020, so Congress will have to take some action on that front in the next 14 months.
Part of that debate will be environmental policy for highway projects. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who chairs the committee, favors streamlining the environmental permit approval process for major projects. but Sen. Tom Carper, D-Maryland, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said climate-change policy should be part of the legislation.
Wildlife migration is another consideration in rural areas, said Carlos Braceras, president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “The infrastructure system that we’ve built over the last 100 years is not the infrastructure system that we’re going to need for the next 100 years,” Braceras testified. “It needs to change and we need to help it adapt.”
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