Mission
The Leadership Initiative on Transportation Solvency will develop a non-partisan solution for financing an improved and self-sustaining transportation system in the United States. Under the leadership of three distinguished political figures, the initiative will conduct an analysis of strategies to fund America’s transportation system that are politically realistic but also serve to make transportation better, greener, and more fiscally sound.
Leadership Team
- The initiative is being led by former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, former Pennsylvania Governor and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and former U.S. Comptroller General and now president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation David Walker.
- Staffing and support for the project is being provided by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Energy and Climate Program.
The Problem
- When Congress created the interstate highway system in 1956 it was meant to be self-sustaining. Funds were raised through a combination of federal gasoline and excise taxes and then deposited into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used to maintain America’s transportation infrastructure.
- The gas tax has remained unchanged since 1993 while transportation spending has continued to grow.
- There is an ever-widening gap between the amount of money flowing into the system and the amount of money being spent.
- The Highway Trust Fund is not only broke, it is broken. Of the $78 billion spent by the federal government every year on transportation, $25 billion is funded from the United States Treasury’s general revenues.
- Bailing out the Highway Trust Fund year after year is not only fiscally unsustainable, it also shortchanges critical improvements to America’s crumbling infrastructure.
- Failure to reform our transportation system risks deepening U.S. dependence on oil, adding to climate change, and eroding American economic competitiveness.
The Solution
- Conduct intensive analysis of existing federal transportation programs and identify opportunities to sunset programs that have achieved their initial objective or are no longer relevant.
- Explore the possibility of using transportation-related carbon pricing to fund future transportation improvements.
- Produce a long-term strategy that will simultaneously finance America’s transportation infrastructure, decrease the deficit, and reduce carbon emissions.
Policy Recommendations
- In spring 2011, the initiative will unveil its findings and the final report will issue policy recommendations for consideration by Congress. Preliminary findings will be released in advance of the President’s Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Commission.
