Washington, D.C. – Today, in the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, U.S. Representative Max Sandlin sent a loud message to President Bush, rejecting his budget proposal that would slash highway funding for the next fiscal year. Today, in response to President Bush’s recommended $9 billion highway funding cuts, the members of the Transportation Committee introduced and marked up the Highway Funding Restoration Act that would restore highway spending for next year.

     “When the President submitted his budget in February, he proposed drastic cuts in highway funding that would result in a loss of over $600 million for Texas highways,” said Sandlin. “This would severely disrupt Texas’ state highway infrastructure and require us to postpone or abandon many scheduled projects throughout East Texas. Further, any cuts to these critical projects would jeopardize future jobs throughout Texas and improvements to East Texas’ infrastructure.

     According to Sandlin, the Highway Funding Restoration Act would ensure that the highway funding would be kept behind a “firewall” and would be protected from being spent for non-highway purposes. The bill would set the funding level at $27.764 billion for fiscal year 2003 – an increase of about $4.4 billion recommended in the President’s budget.

     “I have met with dozens of East Texans in Washington and in the First Congressional District who are strongly opposed to the funding cuts proposed by President Bush. I vowed to them to do all that I could through my position on the Transportation Committee to restore highway funding. The Highway Funding Restoration Act would do just that.”

     In 1998, on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Sandlin secured $31 million for East Texas projects through the authorization of the Transportation and Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). TEA-21 sets highway funding levels for Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs each year between 1998 and 2003. TEA-21 created a federal highway funding formula for Texas by requiring that it receive at least 90 cents for every dollar sent to Washington in federal gas taxes.

     “This state aid formula was a great victory for Texas and it was meant to be a floor – not a ceiling. Americans pay gas taxes in order to have adequate roads and infrastructure. If we are going to collect the taxes, we must build the roads,” said Sandlin.

     “There is overwhelming support in the House for this legislation, with 320 co-sponsors. I call on the House Republican leadership to bring this bill to the floor immediately so that we can restore this vital highway funding,” concluded Sandlin.