Published April 1998 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Giving New Life to Our Nation's Highways
The Senate recently passed the six-year highway bill, or ISTEA II, that authorizes federal spending for highway and bridge construction and transit systems across the country. This bill, which demonstrates a reversal in the federal government's chronic underinvestment in our national highway needs, may be the single most important piece of legislation that Congress will consider this year. A total level of$ I 73 billion in formula funding for highways -- $26 billion more than the level in the committee- reported bill -- was made possible by my amendment to the bill to authorize the spending of the portion of the gas tax which has been designated for highway needs, rather than allowing revenues from the 4.3-cent tax to sit idle, unused, in the Highway Trust Fund. Thus, my amendment would ensure a higher level of transportation funding for every state in the nation. For West Virginia, it would mean more than $I .5 billion in formula funding over the next six years -- approximately $593 million more than the state received in the last IS TEA bill, enacted in I 99 I. Also, with my amendment, the bill provides a total of $2.19 billion for the 13- state ARC Highway system over the six years of the bill. West Virginia would receive $330 million of that funding for ARC highways within the state. By contrast, the committee- reported highway bill devoted just $300 million over six years to the ARC system, or just $7.6 million annually for West Virginia. At that rate, the system would not be completed until the closing years of the next century, if then. In addition, the highway bill -because of my amendment -helps to pave the way for eventual completion of the ARC Corridor Highway System. After years of working for a consistent approach to funding the 13-state Corridor Highway system, and having had to contend with a happenstance method that has left the system less than 78 percent complete 32 years after its approval by Congress in I 965, my amendment launches a reliable funding mechanism, making the ARC Highways eligible to draw down contract authority directly from the Highway Trust Fund. By passing ISTEA II, the Senate has told the traveling public that the revenues collected at the gas pump from American highway users will be spent on the purposes for which they were collected; namely, the maintenance, upkeep, and expansion of our national highway and transit systems. Further, this bill will bring new life to our nation's highways, providing more money to improve safety, relieve congestion, reduce fatalities, and bolster commerce and economic opportunities throughout the nation. April 1, 1998