Nearly $8B in federal highway funds saved

While the continuing resolution represents a short-term victory for the industry, NAPA issued a reminder that Congress must move forward with full reauthorization of the nation’s surface transportation programs. Photo by Kevin Yanik

A continuing resolution to keep the government operating through Dec. 20 will cancel a planned rescission of $7.6 billion in infrastructure project funding during 2020.

According to Bezinga, the planned rescission would have taken back money from each state’s unobligated transportation funding balances. Three states – Texas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania – would have lost 30 percent of the total – or a combined $2.1 billion of the total amount slated to be cut from the Highway Trust Fund.

The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) was one industry organization to applaud the development.

“NAPA is pleased Congress is moving forward to cancel the rescission of $7.6 billion in funding for state highway projects across the nation,” says Audrey Copeland, president and CEO of NAPA. “While the plan for these cuts was a necessary budgeting tool to get the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act passed in 2015, in practice they hamper the ability of states to build and maintain the infrastructure drivers need.”

NAPA is urging Congress to move forward with full reauthorization of the nation’s surface transportation programs.

“The Senate has before it America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act, but it lacks a robust funding source,” Copeland says. “To ensure American infrastructure meets the needs of today and the future, Congress has to make passage of a robustly funded, long-term surface transportation program a priority.”