December 8, 2003

The bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unveiled their TEA-21 reauthorization measure at a November 19 press conference calling for $375 billion over six years for the nation's highway, transit, and transportation research efforts. This is a 72 percent increase over the total funding for TEA-21 (1998 — 2003), and a 52 percent increase over the total funding proposed in the Administration's Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA) reauthorization bill.

Ensuring the basic program structure of ISTEA and TEA-21, H.R. 3550, "The Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU) includes:

• $298 billion for highways, roads and bridges investment;

• $69 billion for public transportation investment;

• $3.3 billion for motor carrier programs; and

• $4.2 billion for safety programs of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

TEA-LU contains several new initiatives including a $17.6 billion program known as Projects of National and Regional Significance, which will address large and expensive infrastructure projects. This program is one of the Conference's top reauthorization priorities.

Other new programs of note include a congestion relief program, small starts transit program, freight intermodal connectors program, and a program focused on pedestrian and cyclist equity.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Transportation and Communications Chair Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in response to the release of the bill said, "Metropolitan areas generate almost 85 percent of the nation's employment, income, goods and services. For America's cities, the Committee's $375 billion proposal means fixing our transportation network so we can create jobs and economic growth."

"We will keep fighting along side the House Transportation Committee until we have the tools to move our cities and economy forward," said Mayor Nickels.

In his statement, Committee Chair Don Young (AK) said, "we have to face the facts - our highways, bridges and transit systems are aging and not up to the challenge."

"America's congestion and safety crisis will not just go away - it must be dealt with immediately. Our proposal will play a major role in moving our aging transportation system into the 21st century," said Young.

Subcommittee Chair Thomas Petri (WI) said, "The Department of Transportation has told us that we need $375 billion to maintain and start to address our highway and transit problems. If we don't do it right this time, our highways, roads and bridges will be in total disrepair when the next bill is written in 2009."

The House Transportation and Infrastructure request is considerably higher than the Senate measure. On November 12, The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its TEA-21 renewal plan, estimated at $255 billion over six-years.

The House transportation leaders- plan does not specify how additional revenues will be raised to pay for the $375 billion package. Committee leaders have supported indexing the federal gas tax as a method.

The legislation is not a full package in that it excludes provisions dealing with project streamlining and clean air conformity, which has been at the center of the debate on legislation moving its way through the Senate.

The Conference is busy analyzing TEA-LU in detail and will have that analysis to you shortly. The TEA-LU is expected to move to full Committee markup in February.

Please visit the U.S. Conference of Mayors website usmayors.org to view TEA-LU in summary and full legislation.