DeFazio says U.S. down to 4th world status because of crumbling infrastructure

WASHINGTON — The U.S. transportation system has gone from being the envy of the world to “Fourth World” status, Rep. Peter DeFazio said Tuesday.

“We have gone from being First World — the envy of the world — to, I kept saying, Third World until my colleague Mr. [Earl] Blumenauer, D-Ore., said ‘you are insulting third world countries,” during a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “They are investing a higher percentage of their GDP in transportation than we are.’ So I’ve taken to calling it the Fourth World. The U.S. has vaulted over the Third World countries to a system that is the envy of none.”

DeFazio’s comments came after opening remarks by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who was reporting on the progress of transportation and water infrastructure investment funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Admitting he was about to be “difficult” and addressing LaHood directly, DeFazio said, “I saw last week where you made a rather definitive statement that for the indefinite future you could anticipate no new revenues or this administration requesting no new revenues for the highway and transit trust fund (a reference to LaHood saying the Obama administration would not support an increase in the gas tax). And I’d just like to square that with the excellent work your department just did recently. For instance, you announced last week that we have a $77.7 billion backlog in transit. We know that this backlog is killing people. It’s killing people right here in Washington, D.C., and it is killing people in other parts of the country. We have outmoded, obsolete transit systems in a state of not very good repair and our current system will not even keep up the current state of repair let alone begin to improve.”

Referring to surface transportation, DeFazio said in the U.S. 150,000 bridges that are obsolescent, either functionally obsolete or structurally deficient, and 61,000 lane miles in poor or fair condition on the national highway system.

“We are investing about two-thirds of what we need [in] the current state of disrepair,” he said. “That is, it is getting worse, and the same with transit. We would need an additional $96 billion a year to make all the cost beneficial highway improvements and eliminate the bridge backlog. When making those investments, it would also mean millions of jobs across the country.

‘I’m not quite sure the White House has come around on the value of infrastructure investments. I certainly haven’t seen any advocacy out of the White House for infrastructure investment. When I list those needs and I hear [former Transportation Secretary] Mary Peters talking and saying all we need is private-public partnerships and tolling and then the Obama administration in addition wants to add an infrastructure bank, I just want to know how it is all going to work?

“I know you are constrained by the people you work for or with, but to say somehow we are going to seriously the address these issues through tolling, through private-public partnerships and with an infrastructure bank, it’s not going to get it there and I think that’s pretty sad.”

An infrastructure bank would be capitalized with federal tax dollars as a lure for private investment. A board would award funding to important national and regional public projects of national.

LaHood quickly jumped to the defense of the administration.

“Well I can tell you this,” LaHood said to DeFazio, peering over the top of his glasses and speaking with a definitive tone of voice. “There are people in the administration who get it when it comes to infrastructure, including the president. The idea that people at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue don’t get it is not quite accurate. Right at the top, the occupant of the White House gets it. He knows that infrastructure investments will put people to work. That’s why we received $48 billion. Everywhere that I’ve gone, Mr. Chairman, 80 cities, 30 states where I’ve talked about the fact that we want to work with Congress on the way forward with a transportation program we support the lion’s share of what’s in Mr. Oberstar’s bill (a reference to the new highway bill that Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D.-Minn, is proposing). It’s a good bill. The only thing we need, the only thing is about $450 billion and you know as well as I do that the highway trust fund is deficient. So I don’t know if there is courage around here to do something about that.

“The reason I talk about tolling, public private partnerships, the infrastructure is because we need to think outside the box about how we are going to do all the things that the president wants to do, that Ray LaHood wants to do, that you all want to do. There’s not disagreement about what the needs are in America. You cited them very well and I don’t disagree with that. I’m on board. We love to do transportation projects at DOT. The people who work there love doing them. The president believes in it. We need to work together to find the resources to get a bill and get the job done. If we do that, we’re well on our way to meeting all the needs that you stated.”

Oberstar later noted that to reach the $450 million mark, Congress and the administration needed to find only $140 million more than was already coming into the Highway Trust Fund.

“That’s $20 billion a year,” he told LaHood. “Surely we can sit down and figure out where that money is going to come from.”

Lyndon Finney, editor of The Trucker, may be contacted to comment at editor@thetrucker.com.