FLORIDA: The situation relating to Washington’s roads and public transit systems is going from bad to worse. This is obvious almost every time you drive down one of our highways, across one of our bridges or travel on our bus system. It’s also a key reason our state lawmakers raised the gas tax by 7 cents. Yet, somehow, policymakers in Washington are oblivious to our situation.
In July, after years of taking a short-term approach, the U.S. Senate finally passed a bill to fund the nation’s transportation systems for six years. However, the version passed by the U.S. House of Representatives funds those systems only through October of this year.With the pace at which the House is seeking to “fix” our ailing transportation infrastructure, you would think everything is fine but, actually, it’s far from it.
Organizations including the nonprofits transportation research group TRIP, AAA, the American Farm Bureau Federation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Travel Association released a report on rural roads that reminded us just how bad the situation is and the very real impact this situation has on communities in Washington and across America.
