DALLAS - The current U.S. transportation secretary and his predecessor on Thursday separately warned about the dangers of letting the Highway Trust Fund become insolvent on or before the end of fiscal 2014.
Anthony Foxx, the current secretary of the Transportation Department, called on America's local leaders to press Congress for a bipartisan solution to highway funding.
"The Highway Trust Fund is teetering on the edge of insolvency," he said in an address at the 82nd annual winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "The fund needs to be replenished in fiscal 2015, but we may go upside down before fiscal 2014 concludes."
"It's a serious problem," Foxx said. "The Highway Trust Fund may start bouncing checks as early as August."
Ray LaHood, the former transportation secretary said in a brief interview that he wants Congress to pass a six-year highway bill to replace the current two-year spending plan, and to put at least $500 billion of funding in it for surface transportation infrastructure.
LaHood, who has joined DLA Piper LLP as a policy adviser in its Washington and Chicago offices, said the biggest transportation challenges for lawmakers in 2014 are crafting a bipartisan transportation funding bill and raising the gasoline tax high enough to pay for it.
"The next highway bill needs to be big and bold," LaHood said. "It needs to extend for five or six years, and it needs to contain at least $500 billion for transportation funding."
The current two-year MAP-21 surface transportation spending bill will expire on Sept. 30, at the end of fiscal 2014.
"A two-year spending bill, like the one that was enacted during my tenure at DOT, does not give the long-term certainty that is needed by contractors or state transportation departments for long-term, expensive projects," LaHood said.
The best mechanism for boosting federal transportation spending is by increasing the gasoline tax, he said.
"We need to pass a highway bill, and fund it by raising the gasoline tax by 10 cents [from the current 18.4 cents per gallon] and indexing the gasoline tax to inflation," LaHood said. "If we had indexed it back when we last raised the tax in 1994, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
As federal transportation dollars fall short, Foxx told the mayors, local highway projects will get pushed back or even canceled, and maintenance needs go unfilled.
"Some projects will go a little slower, and some will be delayed," he said. "Some won't even make it onto the project list."
Foxx said Democrats and Republicans have to work together to pass a new, long-term transportation bill before the current one expires.
"It will take a bipartisan proposal in Congress, and it will take a bipartisan effort from you to move the legislation," he told the assembled local leaders.
"There are signs of hope that Congress will act, and I'm going to do everything in my power to urge them to do so responsibly," Foxx said.
President Obama's proposal to link corporate tax reforms with increased infrastructure investment is a good start, Foxx said. "It would stabilize the Highway Trust Fund for several years so we could plow investments into infrastructure," Foxx said.
"We have an infrastructure deficit in this country," he said. "If we want to build more infrastructure, we need money to pay for it."
The overwhelming bipartisan passage in the House and Senate of water transportation bills is an encouraging sign for enactment of a highway bill this session, LaHood said.
"Congress does need to be congratulated on the water proposal," he said. "It looks like it is be approved by the conference [committee], and it will be a good thing for ports."
LaHood served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as a Republican from Illinois before being named head of DOT by President Obama.
He will be joined at DLA Piper by Joan DeBoer, who served as his chief of staff at DOT from 2009 until he left the post in 2013.
LaHood and DeBoer will advise DLA Piper's public finance, structured finance, and infrastructure clients, said Roger Meltzer, the firm's co-chairman for the Americas. "Secretary LaHood and Joan bring essential government, management, and policy experience to the firm," Meltzer said. "They have significant, firsthand knowledge about some of our economy's most significant challenges."
Ignacio Sanchez, co-chair of DLA Piper's regulatory and government affairs practice, said LaHood and DeBoer bring invaluable hands-on experience to the firm. "We look forward to utilizing their talents on a variety of projects involving the intersection of government and business," Sanchez said.
