As chairman of the U.S. House committee with the primary responsibility for authorizing investments in our nation’s roads and bridges, my colleagues and I have been meeting with local officials and job creators around the country to hear their transportation priorities.
Today, we are in Atlanta to continue this dialogue with a public infrastructure forum with state leaders and regional employers, such as Coca-Cola and UPS.
So far, we’ve heard about the need for legislation that provides multi-year funding stability to take on significant highway system improvements, cuts red tape delaying projects to benefit our communities and enhances freight mobility.
We’ve also heard, no matter where we’ve gone, that states don’t want the federal responsibility of providing for a national infrastructure system to be eliminated and thrust solely upon them. In fact, they have made clear that severing this partnership with the federal government would be fundamentally unworkable.
This federal duty was established in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Before the creation of that document, the states were only loosely bound by the Articles of Confederation, which failed to provide the structure necessary to truly unite the states. The country’s leaders had no means to coordinate a transportation system that facilitated the flow of commerce beyond state borders. Our Founding Fathers recognized this weakness; they gave Congress the authority to establish post roads and regulate interstate commerce, and provided the foundation for the federal role in tying the land together through transportation.
Today, this constitutional responsibility is more important than ever. Our economy ebbs and flows with the functionality of our infrastructure. Look no further than the impending relocation of the Mercedes-Benz U.S. headquarters to Atlanta. This move, based in part on the region’s system of roads, rails, ports, and airports, is bringing 1,000 jobs to the area.
However, our infrastructure will not care for itself, and we all have felt the impact of tedious traffic, excruciating commutes and potholes. Anyone who’s lived in Atlanta knows rush hour can start before sunup and last well after sundown. It’s ourseventh-most congested city, and Atlantans spend an extra $3.2 billion every year stuck in traffic.
That’s why Congress must pass a transportation bill as soon as possible that invests in our roads and bridges, removes bottlenecks and adds capacity where necessary. Our state and local partners want Congress to listen to their ideas and input, oversee a seamless transportation network that promotes commerce, and ensure the federal role is carried out more effectively.
Keeping America connected matters — from the business relying on deliveries to get products to consumers, to the working mom trying to get home to her family. It’s a lesson the framers of the Constitution and other U.S. leaders have taken to heart throughout history. As once observed by President Eisenhower, whose vision led to the creation of the Interstate Highway System, my committee is now working to maintain and strengthen, without the unifying force of transportation, “we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.”
Through transportation, we can ensure our nation remains greater than the sum of those “many separate parts.”
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