ACPA Network Join Broad Stakeholder Group in Letter to Congressional Leaders
A group of nearly 80 stakeholder groups, including ACPA and more than a dozen affiliated chapters and other state and regional concrete promotion groups sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urging support for AASHTO’s request to authorize $200 billion in highway and bridge stimulus to drive down the enormous infrastructure backlog (see related story, ACPA Supports AASHTO’s Message to Congress).
The letter endorses AASHTO’s policy and funding recommendations for an infrastructure package and surface transportation reauthorization.
The letter emphasizes the important role highways and bridges have played during the pandemic, as well as their vital role during disasters, including years of active hurricanes and wildfires.
The broad stakeholder group also expressed a goal of collaborating with Congress to build upon this roadway system and ensure that all Americans, regardless of socioeconomic status, have the connectivity they need to flourish in their communities.
They emphasized that “states and local governments need flexibility to serve the varying transportation needs of those communities. The transportation inequities faced by citizens living in urban areas are not the same as those living in rural parts of the country. One-size-fits-all mandates on state and local communities limiting their ability to construct new highway capacity could stymie efforts to better connect disadvantaged communities and Tribes to jobs, healthcare facilities, and schools, or to better link businesses in those communities to their markets.”
They also said that while they “recognize the need to reassess the federal infrastructure priorities and support continued investment in transit and other modes of transportation,” it is crucial to provide states and local communities with needed funding and flexibility. Click here to see the complete letter.
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