Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles Bass (R-NH02) has joined forces with a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to maintain federal highway funding for New Hampshire and other states. The Fair Alliance for Intermodal Reinvestment (FAIR) Coalition launched their effort today to stop a proposal to change the formula used to distribute gas tax revenues from the federal Highway Transportation Fund.

“Federal highway funding should be based on need,” said Bass. “The needs of the Northeast, with its higher labor costs, denser populations, severe weather conditions, and older infrastructure, are more significant than those in other regions. I will fight the efforts of Members from Southern and Midwestern states with newer and less expensive infrastructures to try to take millions of federal transportation dollars from states like New Hampshire.”

Bass has joined with more than 40 Members of Congress from nine states to work to defeat the Highway Funding Equity Act (H.R. 2208) and preserve the current formula for federal highway funding in the Transportation and Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21) reauthorization bill. TEA-21 authorizes highway funding for five years. The highway funding equity bill would increase the minimum guaranteed funding level from 90.5% of a state’s of contributions to the Highway Trust Fund to 95% of the states contribution share. Under the bill, New Hampshire would have received $24 million less in federal highway funding in Fiscal Year 2002 and roughly $19 million less in Fiscal Year 2003.

“As a Representative from a state that receives only 72 cents for every dollar it sends to Washington, I understand the frustration of being on the wrong side of funding formulas,” said New Hampshire’s 2nd District Congressman. “In fact, much of the Northeast receives less than we give in total for federal spending. Conversely, under TEA-21, New Hampshire has gotten back $1.06 for every dollar the state pays into the fund. By joining forces, I am hopeful that we will maintain the current highway funding formula, which benefits New Hampshire.”

As a founding member of the FAIR Coalition, Bass has been tasked to work with Representatives from 19 states adversely affected by the proposed funding formula, transportation activists, and others to maintain the current needs based system.