AEM Praises Highway Trust Fund Legislation
September 11, 2008 • The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) commends the U.S. Senate's passage this week of legislation that transfers $8 billion into the Highway Trust Fund to avoid a revenue shortfall. The House of Representatives, which had previously passed similar legislation, is expected to approve the Senate bill yesterday. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters had called on Congress to act, and the President will sign the bill.
This legislation enables hundreds of construction projects across the country to continue. Without it, the Highway Trust Fund would have seen a significant funding shortfall next year, resulting in drastic cuts to states' transportation construction budgets.
It is estimated that states would have seen their highway construction budgets fall 34 percent overnight starting next week.
States had begun to cancel or postpone projects in anticipation of a shortfall. And, skyrocketing material costs have already forced states to reduce their transportation projects, resulting in a loss of 48,000 highway construction jobs in the past 12 months, noted AEM.
"A cut of this magnitude would have had a devastating impact not only on safety and mobility in our country but also on employment in the highway construction industry, with as many as 485,000 jobs in danger of elimination," said AEM President Dennis Slater. "With unemployment at a 5-year high we can ill-afford further job losses from an insolvent Highway Trust Fund."
AEM cautions that while passage of this critical bill will help keep Americans working and our highways safe and properly maintained, there is much left to do.
"This is only a temporary fix,” Slater said. “The trust fund will continue to experience shortfalls as Americans drive fewer miles. Our nation's lawmakers still must commit to increasing investment in our transportation infrastructure for the future."
AEM has been active in advancing this legislation as well as overall promotion of adequate transportation infrastructure funding, coordinating Congressional informational visits, member action alerts and industry coalition participation.
AEM is the North American-based international trade group representing the off-road equipment manufacturing industry, and its members manufacture equipment, products and services used worldwide in the agriculture, construction, forestry, mining and utility sectors. AEM has headquarters in
Milwaukee, Wis.
