Several participants in the White House meeting mentioned the importance of reauthorizing the federal surface transportation and aviation programs.
President Barack Obama wants Congress to pass the Federal Surface Transportation Bill as soon as they get back from summer recess.
So those acts contain provisions that authorize the Secretary of Transportation to make the unused funds available for eligible surface transportation projects.
In the short term, with the 109th Congress having punted on fiscal 2007 appropriations, spending authorized by the 2005 surface transportation act hangs in the balance.
CCIT's mission is to accelerate the implementation of research results and the deployment of technical solutions to enable a safer, cleaner, and more efficient surface transportation system.
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Eighty percent of the Recovery Act funds targeted for surface transportation was spent out -- the projection was we would have only spent out 55 percent at this point.
WHITEHOUSE: Meeting of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness | The White House
So says Peter Ruane, chief executive of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), as he unveils a 70-page plan for updating legislation on federal surface transportation spending.
The railroads retort that despite record traffic and profits, their return on investment since 2000 has been only 8%, which according to the Surface Transportation Board, another federal regulator, barely covers the cost of capital.
And as you point out, there has been business that the Senate had to get done in September because of the fiscal year constraints, and that included not just FEMA funding but the CR in general, surface transportation extension, FAA extension.
He is an acknowledged expert in the area of federal infrastructure budgeting and finance, having had an active role in the financing of each of the last three comprehensive surface transportation reauthorization bills dating back to the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991.
But it really is vital that Congress get its act together and pass some of these important pieces of legislation that have -- in the case of surface transportation and in the case of the aforementioned student loan rate legislation and a host of others -- have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past.
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