Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85644
by Tina Grady Barbaccia, News and Digital Editor Agg For daily news updates and Web-exclusive news items, visit the "AggBeat Online" section of our Web site at www.aggman.com UNCHARTED ROAD AHEAD? A federal transportation bill in place will provide some stability, but spending levels and timing are critical. Despite the Feb. 23 decision by House Republicans to abandon their proposed change to delink transit funding from highway user fees, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) publicly announced on March 8 that he plans to take up the Senate's $109 biparti- san highway bill once it clears the upper chamber, according to a report in The Hill transportation blog (http://bit.ly/y8AB1b). This decision came after his efforts to save a measure by his own party failed. "As I told the members [March 7], the current plan is to see what the Senate can produce and to bring their bill up," Boehner said in a March 8 news conference. The House had introduced H.R. 7 as a five-year bill, but it would be shortened since reclaiming highway user fees from mass transit was a major funding source for the bill. The proposed funding source for mass transit, a change in the funding of federal pensions, was partially used to extend the payroll tax holiday leaving a gaping hole in the bill, ac- cording to the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). Boehner favors a $260 billion multiyear bill that would be funded by revenue from oil and gas drilling, but his fellow GOP members disapprove of the funding level and are concerned about an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that drilling revenues will produce finances less than Boehner hopes, according to The Hill. At Aggregates Manager press time, the new length of the House bill is still unclear. However, rank-and-file House Republicans weren't keen on passing a long-term transpor- tation bill, and they aren't much more supportive of a shorter-term measure, an 18-month extension that party leaders had suggested instead. This opposition took Boehner back to square one. Boehner had put off House debate on the surface-transportation Making Transportation Job No. 1 The Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) Coalition launched a six-figure media campaign Feb. 12, with major financial support from the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). The NSSGA says that ads will appear in Washing- ton, D.C., key states, and districts around the coun- try telling Congress to "Make Transportation Job #1" and pass a highway and transit bill now. The campaign kicked off with television ads running during the Sunday talk shows and will continue running for three weeks with cable, radio, and online components. Ads can be viewed at www.fasterbettersafer.org/home/ad-campaigns.html. The ads were timed to run before the March 31 expiration of the latest extension of the current sur- face transportation bill — Safe, Accountable, Flex- ible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). "While there are significant differences between Jobs the packages, there is strong bipartisan momen- tum driving these efforts," the NSSGA says in its legislative update, noting that the organization and its coalition partners will continue pushing the Senate and House to pass reauthorization bills and send it to a conference committee that will reconcile the differences. AGGREGATES MANAGER April 2012 5 Jobs