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The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) established a pilot program that will allow state and local governments to use local geographic hiring preferences on their federal-aid highway and federal transit assisted contracts. The pilot program is effective immediately and will last one year. DOT also issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to make these changes permanent by altering existing Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations. Read the pilot program proposal here and the Notice of Proposed Rule Making here.

This week, �鶹��Ƶ continued to push back on outside groups like Heritage Action and Club for Growth, who have been pushing a legislative proposal that would severely cut federal funding for state highway capital investments. The proposal known as the Transportation Empowerment Act (TEA Act) would decrease the federal gas tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to 3.7 cents per gallon over five years and result in states either raising their gas taxes or face steep cuts in their transportation programs.

New “e-Hardhat” Letters Available at www.HardhatsforHighways.org

#DriveBetterRoads: �鶹��Ƶ Launches New Education, Advertising and Social Media Campaign to Boost Federal Highway Funding Visit www.DriveBetterRoads.org Today! On Tuesday, �鶹��Ƶ launched a new nationwide advertising and education campaign to push for a boost in federal transportation spending called #DriveBetterRoads. The new effort is designed to help commuters and shippers understand how much they benefit from federal highway investments. The campaign is also focused on making sure these commuters and shippers understand that they can and should play a key role in pushing Washington to find a way to pay for road and bridge repairs for the long term. Congress and the Obama administration must figure out a way to fund needed highway and transit repairs before current legislation, and the federal funding that comes with it, expires on May 31.

With the May 31 deadline for reauthorization of the federal-aid highway and federal transit programs quickly approaching, finding a solution for keeping the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) solvent remains the biggest hurdle. Recently Sen. Finance Committee Chair Orin Hatch (R-Utah) – whose committee is responsible for finding revenue to finance the Highway Trust Fund – established a task force to recommend ways to keep the fund solvent. Chairman of the task force, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), said this week that his group plans to identify a funding mechanism that would support a five- to six-year authorization bill.

This week, the �鶹��Ƶ-led Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) sent a letter to the House and Senate Budget Committees urging them to address the looming insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) in their fiscal year 2016 budget resolutions.

Repatriation and Transportation Financing are the Focus This week, two congressional committees held hearings exploring the use of repatriation to fill the Highway Trust Fund revenue gap and additional financing for transportation infrastructure, respectively. Congress must identify sources of revenue to fill the gap and pass a long-term transportation bill before the end of July, when the current extension expires, in order to keep highway & bridge construction projects running. �鶹��Ƶ continues to push for a permanent fix for the Highway Trust Fund and supports innovative financing options that would increase the use of public-private partnerships, among other measures, to address our nation’s transportation infrastructure needs.

This week, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report detailing public spending on transportation and water infrastructure from 1956 to 2014. The report showed that public spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure has been fairly consistent as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at about 2.4 percent, which is below the 3.0 percent peak in 1959. It did recently rise to 2.7 percent of GDP in 2009 and 2010 because of the increase in infrastructure investment under ARRA, which temporarily boosted infrastructure spending by $55 billion.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2015 (PRRIA) by a vote of 316-101.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a pilot program this week that will allow state and local governments to utilize local hiring preferences on their federal-aid highway and federal transit assisted contracts. The pilot program is effective immediately. In addition, DOT issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to alter Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations that will make these changes permanent. DOT has provided a 30-day comment period on these changes.