Spending approximately $50 billion per year on roads and transit systems, the federal program supplements similar volumes of spending by state and local governments, also usually derived from a state-imposed fuel tax. Read More.
Abstract: Wasteful, inequitable, and bristling with burdensome regulations, the Federal Highway Program is in dire need of reform. Although Members of Congress have attempted to enact changes in the past, the influence of many lobbyists and influential constituencies continues to thwart the process. By…
As Congress gears up for another year, reining in spending and debt should top the agenda, but one issue heading squarely against that priority is reauthorization of the transportation program. The last transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, was marked by gluttonous excesses, which ranged from its porcine spending increases and wasteful spending…
My name is Ronald. D. Utt. I am the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own, and should not be construed as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation. Until recently, federal…
They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can’t kill the beast. —The Eagles, “Hotel California,” 1977 With Congress eliminating spending for the President’s faltering high-speed rail (HSR) program and making cuts in Amtrak’s…
America’s transit systems confront serious financial challenges that will force them to raise fares and reduce service unless they can get better control of their costs. Carrying less than 5 percent of commuters and less than 2 percent of all urban travel and concentrated primarily in large urban areas, these…
Growing dissatisfaction with federal transportation policy and government’s mismanagement of the highway trust fund have encouraged many in Congress and in state governments to seek ways to overhaul the system or to extract themselves from it. Since the mid-1990s, legislation has been introduced each year in Congress to phase out…
At May congressional hearings, Representative Jon Mica (R–FL), chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, proposed (1) that 363 of the 456 miles that comprise the Northeast Corridor (NEC) owned by Amtrak be transferred to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) or a newly created government entity and…
Under the laws governing the federal highway program, the federal fuel taxes paid into the trust fund by motorists (18.3 cents per gallon) and truckers are returned to the states by a series of mathematical formulas that attempt to match the scope and usage of each state’s surface transportation system…
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane, Ain’t got time to take a fast train. Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home,‘Cause my baby just a-wrote me a letter. …
President Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2012 is an unabashed attempt to grow government and add $1 trillion to the national debt. While a detailed review of the flaws in the President’s budget is beyond the scope of this paper,[1] one of the budget’s more fiscally…
Revised and updated April 13, 2010 Abstract: President Barack Obama has committed the United States to building at least 13 high-speed rail (HSR) lines, one of the most expensive…
High gasoline prices and America’s alleged addiction to oil give rise to policy ideas to reduce America’s oil use, particularly in the transportation sector. Along with fuel efficiency standards and alternative fuel consumption mandates and production tax credits, the government has in place incentives to make and purchase electric cars,…
Early this year, the new Congress will confront several challenges relating to the size, scope, and nature of the federal surface transportation programs. These challenges will in large part be driven by the need to constrain overall federal spending and by shortfalls in the highway trust fund. Congress should embrace…
Both the majority in the new Congress and the members of the Republican Study Committee recognize that federal transit programs have become a costly extravagance that provides minimal benefits in comparison to costs incurred. In turn, both have proposed that federal transit spending and government subsidies be cut back substantially…
In January 2007, Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Trent Lott (R-MS) introduced the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007 (S. 294), the most recent version of a costly Amtrak bailout bill that was introduced in the previous Congress.[1] In late May, the Senate Committee on Commerce,…
With chaos erupting in North Africa and the Middle East, it’s easy to forget the many challenges the U.S. faces in the...…
On August 5, more than a dozen Somali-Americans, variously located across several states, were arrested on charges...…
Another electronic circular with the nameplate "New Common Sense" burst forth from other corridors of The Heritage...…
Last week, the federal government indicated it was reconsidering a $900 million grant to fund a massive expansion of the...…