Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) – the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure – discussed some of the reauthorization issues in separate sit-downs at the meeting with Laura Chace, president and CEO of ITS America.
Rep. Graves said key issues facing reauthorization remain how to keep the Highway Trust Fund or HTF solvent, how to levy fees on vehicles using the roadways but not paying motor fuel taxes, and how to use technology to improve roadway safety. Rep. Graves added that another big challenge is that many who will be in Congress following the November 5 election will never have worked on a surface reauthorization bill before, and thus may not “understand why it is so important” to the nation’s economy. “This is a challenge for us moving forward – we have a lot of work to do to explain why [reauthorization] is so important, why members need to get behind it, and why these [surface transportation] investments matter.” Rep. Larsen echoed Rep. Graves’ position on the need to educate new members of Congress on the importance of reauthorization.
