The Hill News

President Obama’s Labor Day announcement of a national infrastructure project was a call for reform of the way our society builds and funds its transportation system.  While most observers dismissed it as a desperate campaign maneuver, it should be taken seriously as a signal of the administration’s strategy for next year, when Congress takes up surface transportation policy reauthorization. If Congress implements the reform agenda, it could create an efficient freight transportation system consistent with our nation’s responsibility to meet the challenge of climate change.  This is the opportunity for this generationâ€"and the cur­rent administrationâ€"to shape a new economic future out of the debris of our outmoded, potâ€"holeâ€"filled, and bankrupt transportation system.  But if Congress merely authorizes new infrastructure spending under current funding formulas, we will remain trapped in a freight transportation system that impedes business activity, cont! ributes to climate change, and damages public health.

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