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President Bush Signs Transportation Reauthorization Bill

President George W. Bush today signed into law H.R. 3, the surface-transportation reauthorization bill, winning plaudits from state transportation officials following House and Senate passage of the measure on July 29.

The new $286.4 billion, six-year law sets total surface-transportation contract authority at $295 billion -- an historic high -- with guaranteed spending authority of $286.4 billion over the period from 2004-2009, a 38 percent increase in guaranteed spending.

"This law will be a major boost in mobility for all Americans," said Jack Lettiere, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation and President of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). "The bill will accelerate needed transportation projects, save lives, improve people's quality of life, create jobs and improve many ways we do business."

"This new law creates thousands upon thousands of new jobs," said John Horsley, Executive Director of AASHTO, which represents the state transportation departments in Washington. "The work these newly employed Americans will do will get people home to their families faster, improve our economy, and speed the movement of freight. It will also improve air quality -- both by investing in public transportation and by clearing road congestion that wastes both time and fuel." Horsley thanked the Administration and Congress for their work to bring that about.

Horsley, Lettiere, AASHTO Vice-President Harold Linnenkohl who heads the Georgia Department of Transportation and AASHTO Director of Finance and Business Development Jack Basso were among dignitaries invited to the signing ceremony at the Caterpillar heavy equipment plant in Aurora, Illinois.

The new law addresses a broad range of transportation issues, ranging from safety to expediting environmental reviews.

The minimum state rate of return – the central issue to so-called "donor" states that send more tax revenue to the federal Highway Trust Fund than they ultimately receive – will rise from 90.5 percent in 2005, under the new act, to 92 percent in fiscal years 2008 and 2009.

The measure preserves the all important funding guarantees and assures that if additional receipts become available they can be used for the highway program.

It also includes significant innovative-financing provisions, such as:

• Authority for issuance of private-activity bonds;
• Improvements to the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA); and
• Expansion of state infrastructure-bank provisions to all states.

Other parts of the bill would provide for:

• Enhanced emphasis on safety via increased funding for data, research, safe routes to school, improvements to hazardous highway locations, rail grade crossings, and driver behavior programs;
• Increased investment in research and development with higher funding for the state planning and research program, university research, National Academy of Science's Cooperative Research Programs, and a new Future Strategic Highway Research Program (FSHRP). Also included is funding for Centers of Transportation Excellence for State DOTs;
• Greater flexibility for state DOTs to use federal funding for operational improvements and engineering, including eligibility for traffic management and user information for better operation of the nation's roadways; enhanced eligibility in the bridge program; and enhanced flexibility in the use of design-build.

In the area of the environment, it also:

• Streamlines the project-development process for projects that require an environmental impact statement;
• Exempts projects with minimal effects on historic sites, parks, recreation areas and wildlife refuges from review with the concurrence of resource-agency officials, and exempts the Interstate Highway System from designation as an historic site, with some qualifications;
• Sets a new 180-day statute of limitations for lawsuits challenging federal agencies' approvals of highway and transit projects;
• Authorizes the delegation of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s environmental responsibilities regarding "categorical exclusions;"
• Amends air-quality conformity requirements.

"The states that AASHTO’s members serve have waited for this measure since the predecessor law expired in September of 2003," Horsley said. "This infusion of funds will bring increased safety and mobility to every part of our nation."