The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently sent a letter to Congressional leadership urging “expeditious passage” of a full-year Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies or THUD appropriations bill for fiscal year 2023 prior to the expiration of the current Continuing Resolution or CR funding measure on December 16.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
“While we understand the need for the current CR, it is important that Congress reaches agreement on domestic discretionary spending levels prior to its expiration and not go down the path of enacting further CRs,” AASHTO said in its November 18 letter.
“Rather, we strongly request Congress to finish its work on a full-year THUD appropriations bill as soon as possible to avoid disruptions to critical surface transportation programs and projects,” the organization said.
“As we learned earlier this year, operating under a series of CRs prevents states and local governments from fully achieving the goals of this legislation and delays much-needed improvements to this country’s transportation system,” AASHTO emphasized.
That reference concerned previous CRs that did not allow distribution of the full highway funding until April 1, 2022, which was over four months after the November 2021 passage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA.
The prior-year CRs resulted in state departments of transportation not being able to access the higher amounts of formula funding provided by the Highway Trust Fund via the IIJA, AASHTO said – funds that were about 20 percent higher for FY 2022 compared to the final year of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation or FAST Act.
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