Tell the Trump Administration and Congress to include immediate financial relief for state DOT’s in future COVID-19 relief legislation! This will allow state DOTs and the transportation infrastructure industries to continue essential work to maintain and improve our critical surface transportation network, including interstates, highways, and rural roadways and support job creation and economic growth.
While the immediate infusion of Federal revenue is needed to preserve states’ workforce and maintain the highway program in the near term, Congress is also challenged with the fact that the current highway bill authorization, known as the FAST Act, expires at the end of September.
As an industry leader, we’re asking you to contact your senators and representative TODAY and urge them to quickly enact legislation that includes:
- Emergency relief funding advanced by AASHTO, including flexibility and 100% payable federal share; and
- A multi-year reauthorization bill of at least five years and a significant increase in investments that will improve the conditions and performance of the National Highway System. Click here for TRIP’s State-by-State fact sheets. Click here for TRIP’s report on Maryland’s roads.
The process is easy; simply follow these steps:
- Click this link.
- (Optional) Copy and paste the following message into the “Message Body” field:
As a member of the Maryland transportation industry, my job depends on you to include immediate funding for state departments of transportation (DOTs) in future COVID-19 relief legislation. Due to the pandemic’s negative impact on Maryland transportation revenues, Maryland DOT has canceled some projects and significantly reduced resurfacing projects to bare-minimum patching operations. The private industry has already started laying off employees and without immediate federal funding for the Maryland DOT, the threat of significant additional layoffs grows exponentially. According to Maryland Comptroller Franchot, “without a Federal relief program for the states we are going to really regret the consequences as far as Maryland goes because…we can’t just write a blank check to ourselves. We have to have a balanced budget.”
The construction industry is essential to our nation’s economic strength, building roads and bridges to facilitate the movement of commerce and people, increasing the tax base, and supporting many well-paying jobs. However, amid the pandemic, state projections are showing significant declines in transportation revenue as a result of a 50% vehicle traffic decline. Specific impacts include individual state transportation revenue losses as high as 45% in the next year
Congress must provide state DOTs with immediate, additional funding to help backfill lost state transportation revenue to avoid further project delays, cancellations and, ultimately, construction worker layoffs. I am writing to urge quick congressional action to enact $37 billion emergency COVID-19 relief, as proposed by the state departments of transportation (DOT) through the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Congress must act to provide an immediate revenue backstop for state DOTs, ensuring they can continue essential work to maintain and improve our critical surface transportation network over the next year. I also urge you to work with your colleagues in Congress to take up a multi-year reauthorization bill of at least five years and significantly increase transportation investments that will improve the conditions and performance of the National Highway System.
I also urge you to work with your colleagues in Congress to take up a multi-year reauthorization bill of at least five years and significantly increase transportation investments that will improve the conditions and performance of the National Highway System. - Complete your information in the “Enter your Info” section.
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Thank you for your support!