With the ink barely dry on the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act, American Road and Transportation Builder Association CEO Peter Ruane observed that for the U.S. to remain globally competitive, policymakers at all government levels will need to develop a new approach to transportation planning.

After two years and 13 funding extensions, Congress passed and President Bush signed the $286.5 billion SAFETEA bill, which will see total federal transportation funding climb from about $42 billion in 2004 to $53.5 billion in 2009. The president signed the bill into law during an August 10 ceremony at a Caterpillar plant in Montgomery, Ill. During a keynote address at the 8th Annual Texas Transportation Summit later that day, Ruane said the new highway is a step in the right direction but will not come close to meeting the nation's highway/transit needs identified in repeated government reports.

Adjusted for inflation, SAFETEA's average annual funding gains are 1.8%, compared to the real increases of 6% annually in the TEA-21 predecessor law. Ruane cited a key SAFETEA provision mandating creation of a “blue ribbon” commission to identify the best ways to finance federal transportation investments after 2009. Congress has recognized the current Highway Trust Fund revenue stream is not sufficient enough to meet the federal government's responsibilities in transportation, he added, and the importance of the commission effort cannot be overstated.

ARTBA and its co-chair in the Transportation Construction Coalition, Associated General Contractors, had worked with senior House leadership early on in the TEA-21 reauthorization phase. The most ambitious plan, drawn around funding requirements from U.S. Department of Transportation data, envisioned a $375 billion, six-year funding package. Financing of that plan hinged on annual increases in federal fuel taxes — a strategy doomed by White House resistance and, more recently, sharply increased gasoline and diesel prices.