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Creating Jobs by Rebuilding Our Highways & Bridges

On June 29, 2012, Congress approved a 2¼-year transportation bill to ensure states can carry out important infrastructure projects and ensure long-term jobs in the hard-hit construction industry. The bill was signed into law on July 6, 2012.
 
As the lead sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, Committee Chairman John L. Mica and other House Republicans worked to include in this measure the most comprehensive transportation program reforms since the establishment of the Interstate Highway System under President Eisenhower.
 
This measure includes historic reforms to cut red tape, streamline the bureaucratic project approval process, consolidate or eliminate 2/3 of federal programs, and ensure that states have more flexibility to direct limited resources to high-priority needs.
 
Program reforms included in the bill will allow projects to move forward more efficiently and more according to local priorities – not according to federal mandates. Construction costs escalate with time, and this bill will also lower project costs by avoiding the cost increases brought about by lengthy delays.
 
The previous transportation law contained over 6,300 earmarks, but the new transportation measure contains no earmarks.
 
Furthermore, Mica and House conferees rejected problematic provisions that had been proposed by the Senate. Senate provisions that were eliminated by House Members during negotiations include: penalties for use of public-private partnerships, re-regulation of the railroad industry, and establishment of dozens of new federal programs.
 
In addition, the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill with $16.3 billion in savings over the next decade.
 
Passage of this key legislation was delayed nearly three years, during which time Democrats who controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House failed to pass a long-term bill to set the nation’s transportation policy. Instead, Democrats only passed six short-term, costly extensions.
 
This transportation reform bill is providing the necessary stability that allows states to plan and carry out more significant projects and put people back to work.
 
Click here to read the legislation (H.R. 4348, MAP-21)
State-by-State apportionment tables (Federal Highway Administration)
State-by-State apportionment table (Federal Transit Administration)