House Restores Highway Funds

May 14, 2002

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives this evening overwhelmingly approved legislation that will restore $4.4 billion to the federal-aid highway program in FY 2003 and ensure that this money is spent according to the formula established by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Cosponsored by Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA-11th), H.R. 3694, The Highway Funding Restoration Act, will restore more than $100 million in FY 2003 federal highway funds to Virginia.

Under TEA-21, funding for the federal-aid highway program was linked to highway user fee revenues deposited into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). This was achieved in part by a budgetary mechanism called RABA, the Revenue Aligned Budget Authority, which adjusts the guaranteed amount of highway funding available to reflect the most recent estimates of HTF revenues. Due to an unexpected downturn in highway revenues (attributable to a decline in gas, tire and truck sales, and the overall economic recession), the President s FY 2003 budget proposed an $8.6 billion, or 27 percent cut in highway funding. H.R. 3694 restores $4.4 billion to the highway program (a return to TEA-21 levels), and preserves TEA-21 firewalls, ensuring that the additional money will be spent on highway projects.

"House passage of this legislation sends an important message that these funds will be available to states to continue work on vital transportation projects," Davis said. "TEA-21 - which I helped author as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the 105th Congress -- was a huge win for Virginia, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars more each year in federal aid for transportation projects. This funding meant progress in our fight against traffic congestion, enhanced highway safety, and thousands of jobs - good, family-wage jobs we can t afford to lose. Halting this progress by cutting funding 27 percent would be devastating to Virginia, to our local economies, and to the men and women whose livelihood depends on transportation-related projects. Many projects critical to the continued improvement of Virginia s transportation infrastructure are currently in the works or being planned - and, unfortunately, many are being or soon will be set aside due to funding shortfalls at the state and local levels. In Northern Virginia, safety, quality of life and the overall economy depend largely on maintaining federal TEA-21 funding. This legislation does just that."