AGC today announced that the Senate climate change bill neglects efforts to cut traffic congestion and breaks a decades-long promise that transportation user fees will be dedicated to financing highway and transit improvements.

On Tuesday, AGC and transportation partners sent a letter to Senators Kerry and Lieberman, warning that their bill fails to provide enough funding to the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent or pay for a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

The Kerry-Lieberman bill, The American Power Act, places new pollution fees on the gasoline and diesel fuels used by cars and trucks without returning most of the revenue generated from that fee to improving our transportation system. AGC estimates these fees would generate at least $19.5 billion in revenue and divert at least 77 percent of the funds from on-road fuel consumption away from transportation investment.  The bill will allocate $6.25 billion annually for transportation.  Of that  $6.25 billion, $2.5 billion would go to the Highway Trust Fund - with a mandate to set aside funding for projects that decrease greenhouse gas emissions - while the rest of the money will be equally divided between the competitive federal TIGER grants and local land-use planning, as laid-out in the CLEAN-TEA bill.

AGC was quoted in a number of publications, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Engineering News-Record.

Last week, AGC issued this statement in response to the bill.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

Highway and Transportation Division Chair Dean Word (right), Dean Word Co, Texas, joins Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez at a National Work Zone Awareness Week Kickoff event in New York City.

AGC used the start of the annual Work Zone Awareness campaign to call for increased police presence at highway and transit construction sites nationwide to cut the hundreds of work zone fatalities that take place every year.

Read AGC's press release here.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

Tom Foss (Griffith Company, Brea, Calif.) testified on transportation investments before Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Tom Foss, president of Griffith Company, Brea, Calif., presented AGC testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on the importance of transportation investments to the national economy.

Foss emphasized that the construction industry, like other businesses, relies on a well-functioning transportation system for delivery of materials and products to job sites and, therefore, called for increased investment. Foss pointed out that unemployment in the construction industry is currently more than 24 percent and that additional highway and transportation investment is needed to remedy this situation. AGC's testimony pointed out that transportation funding in the stimulus legislation has saved construction jobs, but that more funding was needed. Foss also called for enactment of a long term SAFETEA-LU reauthorization with increased funding to bring long-term economic growth and certainty to the highway construction market. EPW Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she is committed to getting a six-year highway bill completed this year. She called the hearing the first step in accomplishing this goal.

For more information, contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.

Contractors nationwide are becoming increasingly concerned about possible layoffs next year if Congress does not act on a six-year surface transportation bill, which AGC predicts would reduce federal highway and transit funding by more than $15 billion, or 20 percent.

A recent New Hampshire Union Leader article explored this issue, and included interviews with AGC of New Hampshire and member company Pike Industries.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

The AGC co-chaired Transportation Construction Coalition today launched a new ad campaign and issued a press release to coincide with the White House Jobs Summit, calling on Congress and the Obama Administration to create jobs now by passing a highway and transit bill.

Check out the radio, print and video ads here, and the press release here.  Watch today's White House Jobs Summit live here.

For more information, contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.

Sen. Carper addresses the group at the Transportation Construction Coalition-sponsored luncheon.

The Transportation Construction Coalition, of which AGC is co-chair, sponsored a transportation event today on Capitol Hill.  The event focused on the nation's infrastructure needs, the current reauthorization debate and how to finance the system of the future, and included a conversation about some of the environmental issues surrounding the transportation program.

The event was presented by National Journal and featured transportation reporter Lisa Caruso, as well as Jack Schenendorf, vice chairman for the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.  Sen. Tom Carper addressed the group and called for immediately raising the gas tax as a way to stimulate new job creation.

Watch it here.

For more information, contact Monica Cardenas at (703) 837-5364 or cardenasm@agc.org.

While the $27 billion dedicated to highway construction in the $775 billion stimulus package likely saved thousands of construction-related jobs, it was not enough to prevent widespread lay-offs among road and transit construction businesses according to a survey released today by the AGC co-chaired Transportation Construction Coalition.

While stimulus funds will continue supporting transportation projects next year, 44 percent of contractors anticipate having to lay off additional permanent employees due to overall economic conditions, the survey found.

The results of the survey were released during a conference call, which included remarks from AGC's chief economist Ken Simonson. Read the press release and complete survey results here.

The news was covered by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, CQ Today and the Denver Daily News, to name a few.  AGC of North Dakota's executive vice president, Russ Hanson, discussed the results on the local NBC news station.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

A new video advertisement from the Transportation Construction Coalition, co-chaired by AGC, highlights the findings of a new study that shows 22,000 Americans die each year on deficient roadways.

Watch the video here.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 837-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

Bob Schafer (right), vice president of Ranger Construction, talks with reporter John McCarthy from Florida Today following the event.

AGC and the Florida East Coast Chapter announced Friday that a $20.5 million stimulus-funded project to widen I-95 in Palm Bay, Fla., is helping member company Ranger Construction expand its payroll and retain dozens of employees facing layoffs.

The announcement was made the same day the federal government released its first comprehensive batch of reports detailing how many jobs have been created or saved by the stimulus so far.

Read AGC's press release here.  The news was covered by the local television stations and Florida Today.

For more information, contact Brian Turmail at (703) 873-5310 or turmailb@agc.org.

Congress must take action to repeal an $8.7 billion rescission of federal highway funds set to hit the states on September 30. While for some states this will not have a direct effect, in many states the rescission will result in an actual cut in funding for highway construction projects.

Congress included the $8.7 billion rescission in SAFETEA-LU as a way to make the total funding in the bill fit within federal budgeting parameters. At the time, the intent was to find other budget offsets to prevent the rescission from actually being implemented. However, Congress never took the necessary action. The impact on states will vary depending on the amount of unobligated budget authority each has on the books and in which highway funding categories.

For more information, contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.