Ed Wytkind

Back in the day, a Republican president signed into law one of the greatest infrastructure investments in history, linking communities across the country through long-distance highways. It advanced the nation light years, both economically and in quality of life. It physically put the United in the United States of America.

Not all highways in the Eisenhower System are used equally. At this very moment, some are quite full with passengers and freight, others less so. But in all my years in transportation policy, I have not heard anyone suggest the federal government should tear up roads outside of I-95 and the other heavily used corridors. Of course, that would be an absurd notion but it makes a larger point: there’s been bipartisan consensus since the 1950s that modern highways – urban, suburban and rural – are essential to our economy and our way of life. The debate over the years (including in this Congress) has been how we find the resources to invest more, not less.

If ideology did not get in the way, Amtrak would be seen the sam

The budget cuts being imposed on the FAA for the remainder of the year, and the cascading effects the reckless sequester will have on air travel, are hardly akin to trimming a little fat.

So let’s stop calling the sequestration a 2.5 percent “belt-tightening” for the FAA. These cuts are squeezed into seven months (rather than 12), a situation the Office of Management and Budget equates to a 9 percent budget cut for non-defense agencies. That’s real money being taken from an agency that in the best of times has large initiatives to complete while facing staffing shortages and a deteriorating funding mechanism.

The sequester occurs at a time when our economy is still in recovery mode and we should be funding programs that will put people to work expanding airport capacity and designing, manufacturing and implementing a next generation (Next-Gen) air traffic control system. But Washington is busy playing political games and is barely paying for routine maintenance of antiquated systems.

We are preparing to close towers because we can

What’s so complicated about spending American taxpayer dollars to put Americans to work? That’s the motivation behind our endorsement of policies that condition America’s investment in new streetcars, buses and rail cars on making those products here in America.

Seriously, is there a poll that says we should spend the hard-earned tax dollars of Americans to create a pipeline of transportation manufacturing jobs offshore? Of course there isn’t. But there are plenty of politicians and foreign lobbyists who do a nice job bottling up legislation to beef up our Buy America policies.

We are at a crucial moment in time. We know from the report card issued today by the American Society of Civil Engineers that our nation’s transportation system gets a grade of D+. That means – even if we have to drag many politicians kicking and screaming – that we need to shovel hundreds of billions of dollars into our transit and rail systems, airports and air traffic control, roads and bridges, and our ports and navigation channels.

How

It is indisputable that our transportation system is aging and threatening our competitiveness with the rest of the world. The steady deterioration of our infrastructure, well documented by the nation’s leading civil engineers, should scare America into action.

Yet it took a natural disaster such as Sandy, the hurricane that struck the East Coast with a fury rarely seen in this region, to get our attention. Suddenly, with lives and property at risk and vital transportation threatened, Americans and the politicians they elect were paying attention. Peoples’ lives were turned upside down, businesses were idled, entire towns were left in ruin and vital services such as public transit, passenger rail, air service and freight transportation came to a halt.

These moments make us focus on basic necessities – like New Yorkers paralyzed by flooded tunnels and shuttered transit systems – and realize we can’t live without them. But if we only worry about these things during moments of

While Congressional Democrats and Republicans squabble over whether, and how, to cut payroll taxes for employers, they’re ironically set to cut from one popular program that’s already allowed employers to save hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll taxes while offering vital commuter benefits.

As part of the 2009 Recovery Act this benefit was expanded, permitting employers to offer their employees a $230 monthly pre-tax benefit for transit expenses. It’s win-win for employers and workers: Employees are able to save hundreds of dollars annually on transit expenses, and employers, who don’t pay payroll taxes on these pre-tax deductions, can offer a widely-used and well-liked benefit to their workers while freeing up resources for other investments.

The program is so popular that transit ridership has increased by up to 40 percent in offices that offer the benefit – providing a positive impact on road congestion and pollution, as substantial numbers of people shift to using public transit. Millions of Americans have now taken part in t

To the question of whether or not this is the same old debate, the answer is yes.

The purpose of running a national passenger rail system isn’t to enrich Wall Street and wealthy investors by handing them one of the nation’s most prized and complex surface transportation corridors, the Northeast Corridor (NEC). This proposed privatization experiment does exactly that – and it will bankrupt Amtrak and put daily commuter rail service at risk on the East Coast and around the country.

The proposal offered by Reps. Mica and Shuster literally ends Amtrak’s operating rights on the NEC, essentially seizes Amtrak’s assets (a directive that has launched a robust “takings clause” debate) and puts Amtrak service at risk everywhere else. What do the 700,000 people who travel on the Northeast Corridor every day get from this scheme? Uncertainty and chaos. And what do American taxpayers get in return after decades of investment? Nothing except for wealthy investors looking to make a buck.

We support boosting the