A nation in motion: financing America's transportation infrastructure.

• Author: DeSimone, Daniel C.
• Position: Federal Focus

The strains on the nation's surface transportation network have exceeded the funds available to address system shortcomings.

Don Young, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said in March that America has a highway safety and congestion crisis. Traffic congestion costs more than $67 billion annually, while substandard road conditions and roadside hazards kill more than 1,000 motorists each month. Calling these numbers "alarming," Young urged Congress to address the crisis. (1) Acutely aware of the critical importance of the condition of America's transportation infrastructure to economic growth, international competitiveness, and quality of life, Congress will, in fact, debate and pass legislation this year to address the burgeoning maintenance and expansion needs of the nation's transportation system.

TRANSPORTATION FINANCE 101

On September 30, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) will officially expire. Enacted in 1998 to authorize highway, highway safety, transit, and other surface transportation programs, TEA-21 is the latest chapter in a long history of federal laws designed to build, maintain, and improve the United States' surface transportation infrastructure in partnership with state and local governments. Perhaps the most important chapter was authored by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 when he created the modern interstate highway system. Eisenhower would later write that "more than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America." (2)

But the story of America's roads, highways, and transit systems is not one solely authored by the federal government, In fact, our transportation infrastructure is the product of a successful partnership among federal, state, and local governments dating back long before President Eisenhower enacted the Federal-Aid Highway Act and Highway Revenue Act in 1956. The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 established the federal-aid highway program and defined the roles that have characterized this intergovernmental relationship. As Exhibits 1 and 2 show, state and local governments have borne the major burden of building and maintaining some 3.9 million miles of highway, as well as the nation's 10,000-mile transit network.

While state and local governments have built the roads and rails, the federal government has collected the taxes that pay for them. The federal-aid highway program and the mass...