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Of
course, the new act drew accolades from
Republicans for providing US$280 billion
in funding for infrastructure projects from
the Highway Trust Fund without increasing
the federal gasoline tax.
Just
as predictably, Democrats were lugubrious.
"It isn't enough to fully address the
nation's crumbling roads, bridges and rail
systems," they said.
To
avoid more taxes, the GOP-designed bill
opted to make transfers from the Federal
Reserve's surplus fund, and increase customs
fees and require the Internal Revenue Service
to hire private collection agencies.
The
measure would leave the Highway Trust Fund
with $10 billion at the end of 2020, according
to the non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office.
One
of the first to cheer was the National Retail
Federation (NRF). Before the vote, NRF sent
a letter warning that voting on the Fixing
America's Surface Transportation (FAST)
Act would be included in the retail association's
annual voting scorecard.
"We
encourage the House and Senate to quickly
vote in support and provide long-term stability
to our nation's surface transportation programmes,"
NRF vice president David French.
"It
is important for Congress to pass a long-term
bill that will not only bring predictability
to infrastructure projects, but also focus
on improving the safety and efficiency of
goods movement throughout the supply chain."
The
FAST Act includes several key NRF priorities.
NRF led a coalition that fought to include
a port performance statistics programme
in the final bill, which is essential to
addressing congestion issues at the nation's
ports and increase efficiency in retailers'
supply chains.
NRF
also worked to include a strong focus on
freight policy in the final bill, and the
FAST Act establishes a multimode freight
transportation policy to strengthen the
nation's freight infrastructure and meet
the growing needs of the system.
"NRF
strongly believes that passage of FAST is
a priority not only for our industry, but
for the long term prosperity of all who
rely on freight movement," Mr French
said.
The
measure may not be all what Democrats want,
but it is bound to keep the ball on the
hop in making good an America recovery in
a way that not only provides more jobs -
but leaves improved and badly needed infrastructure
behind.
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