If Congress will do this, say they all, Congress can get to work on a completely new bill full of reforms and enough money to do good work.

It a little like a plane circling an airport, beginning the landing run, then deciding against it and going around again. And again.  A plane that is circling is not the same as one coming in to land. Once fully committed to landing everything happening on the plane changes. Until it does you can’t land. And once it does all you can do is land. So at some point there is a Rubicon in the air, a point, once passed, when landing is all that can happen. Until we reach that point in Congress there is no reason to believe Air Congress will not to go around again

Is there also such a point in the politics of transportation infrastructure? Because right now politicians are still talking the talk they’ve been talking for some time, and all the while little or nothing actually happens while the pressure behind the levee continues to build.

President Obama said the right things in Michigan yesterday, even though he was sounding a lot like those telethon people, you know, “get to the phones and call now.”

Tell Congress to get past their differences and send me a road construction bill — (applause) — so that companies can put tens of thousands of people to work right now building our roads and bridges and airports and seaports.  (Applause.)  I mean, think about it.  America used to have the best stuff — best roads, best airports, best seaports.  We’re slipping behind because we’re not investing in it, because of politics and gridlock.  Do you want to put people to work right now rebuilding America?  You’ve got to send that message to Congress.  (Applause.)

Nice. But saying the right thing is a pointless exercise if it changes nothing.[By the way, this is a White House transcript and the (Applause) is WH work not mine.]

The “Rally for Roads” will take place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (contact information below). The goal is to bring attention to the critical need for Congress to develop and pass a well-funded, multiyear highway reauthorization bill. The Rally for Roads will be held in East Seaton Park at 3^rd Street, NW (between Madison Drive, NW and Jefferson Drive, SW.)  Organizers are asking company executives to bring not only themselves but also employees (in hard hats and their usual work clothes) and equipment which can serve as an excellent backdrop for the event.

The event coincides with the Transportation Construction Coalition Fly-In on May 24 and 25. The Fly-In brings together industry allies to first discuss the problems within the industry, then march, well, walk, up to Capitol Hill to meet with as many members of the 112th Congress as possible. In those face-to-face meeting industry representatives this year will continue to hammer out the message that we desperately need a new highway bill, and a good one at that, and without it damage is done daily to the industry.

But in the past couple of years the message has fallen on willfully deaf ears. Our representatives in both houses concede the need but don’t feel pushed hard enough to have to act. Hence the Rally. A really strong showing might just provide enough extra force to dislodge some of the roadblocks to a new bill

Organizers say the rally will feature employees from all facets of the road-construction industry. Sponsors of the rally include the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, the American Concrete Pavement Association, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the Associated Equipment Distributors, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, the Portland Cement Association, the American Council of Engineering Companies, then Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute and the International Safety Equipment Association.

The rally is being coordinated for by Bonner and Associates. Contact is Lynn Stone at 202-463-8880 or toll-free at 877-898-2612.

As EPA regulations continue to require industry to do more and change existing practices, the chafing had to eventually lead to some sort of outburst. And now it begins.

Now a group of the country’s top executives has petitioned the Administration to have EPA cease and desist its efforts to regulate greenhouse gases from industrial polluters. They want EPA to scrap its regulatory efforts aimed at power plants and oil refinineries, and to have Congress legislate our way to cleaner air.

There has been for time in Washington a feeling among many industrial leaders that EPA was regulating where Congress should have been legislating, and that regulations were avoiding the legislative process that is fairer and more constituionaly in order.

Look at Bloomberg’s report for the full story.

If politicians, wearing government-issue parachutes,  jumped out of airplanes (or were pushed, remember they’re politicians) and decided not to deploy the chute to show their voting constituents how reluctant they are to waste taxpayer dollars (remember, they’re politicians) would they pull the rip-chord when the ground got dangerously close?  You bet your (fill in the blank) they would.

So would those same politicians, having told those same voters that they are going to do everything they can to spend as few taxpayer dollars as they can change their minds when they see highways and bridges crumbling dangerously?  Well, no.The difference seems to be that in this case its not their hide that is in danger its ours.

Look at this example: this time it’s Texas, but you can pick virtually any state, and of course you can pick the entire country, and its the same story. Everybody is talking about the urgency of funding bridge and road work but it is just not happening. With an increase in fuel taxes taken off the table there is no way to find enough money to fund all the work that must be done because no alternative will provide enough. A fuel tax hike would provide money that could be dedicated solely to road and bridge work. It’s a parachute. Use it.

The House just went ahead and approved a $1.2 trillion continuing resolution to keep federal agencies (including Federal highway programs) funded and thus up and running through the end of September. Next week the Senate may, or may not, rubber stamp it, stall it until it dies, ignore or play games with it.

Without this move midnight Dec. 31 might have seen the lights goes out, doors close and roadbuilding equipment get parked (or at least the pieces that aren’t already parked).

According to the National Asphalt Pavement Association reading of the resolution, the CR, ” will give state DOT’s a full fiscal year of authorization to plan for their 2011 construction season. The Federal Highway Program will receive a total of $41.9 billion in contract authority that FHWA will allocate to the states under the SAFETEA-LU formula. The CR will provide $41.1 billion for the Federal Highway Program for 2011, the exact amount provided for in 2010. There are no earmarks of any kind in the Continuing Resolution. $41.1 billion is the amount states can actually spend on their Federal Highway Program in 2011.”

So now what?

If the Senate plays ball we can look through the end of September and keep living with SAFETEA-LU as we have been since it expired. Sometime before then the John Mica [R-Fla]-led House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee could come up with a new bill.Then the fight’s on to get that passed and supported in some form in the Senate. If such a bill doesn’t go anywhere by September 30 it probably isn’t going anywhere period as the new presidential election cycles kicks in. That means September 30 will see another extension (or a shutdown). But how long will that extension be?

States already dangerously strapped for cash will appreciate the CR because it clears the decks for  serious moves for a new bill, and Mica has indicated he’ll go to bat for it. But until one arrives states are still stuck without any long term planning ability. So if Mica can’t get it done, states will be holding their breath to see how long the extension after September 30 will be. If it is in months, or even a year, they’ll be in a major quandary that will affect a lot of lives in this industry.

The turnaround adds more uncertainty to the existing uncertainty about reauthorization.

Mica as ranking member of the committee and Oberstar as chairman worked well together. They had the ability to differ on a number of points but agree that there was a lot they did have in common — they both pushed as hard as they could for a six-year transportation bill — and they gave bipartisanship a good name. Mica of course has now said no to a raised gas tax so the problem they both faced of how to fund reauthorization at an adequate level remains front and center.

I was at a (pre-election)  AASHTO meeting a few days ago where FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez was asked about possible reauthorization timetables and scenarios, and he basically answered that any predictions were in fact guesses. His point, as I took it, was that there are so many variables that there’s very little science or empirically logical thinking that can be applied to coming up with a probable outcome and date.

But it was at that same meeting that former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater pointed out that previous surface transportation legislation passed with voting numbers that were ample evidence of bipartisan support.

Mica still supports a six-year bill. It has the potential for bipartisan support, and perhaps, most importantly, of all the potential legislation for the new GOP-dominated House, transportation and infrastructure funding is a topic both sides of the aisle could/might agree on without offending their old or new support.

But Mendez is right. It’s still anybody’s guess.

The main focus of the industry at the moment has to be December 31. The gavel will not have changed, but the continuing resolution that keeps SAFETEA-LU alive will expire and a shutdown of SAFETEA-LU provisions and programs will be inevitable if something is not done before the end of that day to extend it. So I assume it will be done. But for how long the extension? A week, a month, two months, six months,  210 days, a year or longer?

Right now this is the key problem. Are there 14 extensions waiting in the wings as there were the last time this situation arose? Now, in the thrashings of a lingering recession short extensions are arguably the worst possible case for both government agencies and contractors. They would help cement uncertainty and indecision into place, and they would help rob planners and funders of long-term options. They would be especially destructive come January as we are already 15 months and four extensions beyond SAFETEA-LU’S original sell-by date.

There is of course also the inevitability that Republicans will not simply tinker with the Oberstar bill. So what are the changes we will we see when we read a new draft from the new Committee?

Oberstar’s party held all three branches. Mica’s party holds the house but not the other two.  So bipartisanship in some form is the only way. Readers of hieroglyphics and crystal balls will now spend weeks interpreting and analyzing. Mica may make that a little easier by being, to say the least, somewhat blunt in his speech. We may know quickly what he wants to do and even what he intends to do, but then we descend into guesswork again as a new Congress settles into place.

We are but parachutists. We jumped from the plane some time ago and we’ve been pulling the reauthorization ripcord, worried more than ever now that it seems to be stuck. The ground is coming up at us faster and faster. And if the chute does deploy in time will it be adequate to provide us with a satisfactory landing?

In a panel session “Transportation: Making the Case to the American Public,” the 2010 American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) chairman said it was time to level with the public about the scope of the transportation challenges facing the nation and how much time and money it will take to address them. He outlined a series of transportation-related “truths” during his remarks.

Larry Tate’s remarks follow:

“First and foremost, the nation’s future economic growth, which makes possible our quality of life, is heavily dependent on the state of our transportation infrastructure network,” Tate said. “If, in the future, we invest in making our network more efficient in moving people— and particularly goods—by adding capacity across all modes, we will be competitive internationally and able to and create and sustain American job growth. If we make the wrong choices, we won’t.”

Another truth, according to Tate, is that by 2050, the American population will grow by an estimated 112 million people, to 420 million, which by itself will tremendously increase demand for all products and commodities and American jobs. A third truth is that freight demand will also double in the next 40 years, from 15 billion tons today to 30 billion tons.

“For the future, we absolutely need to make adding significant new capacity to the nation’s highway system a top federal priority. We need to address the known traffic chokepoints and create regional critical commerce corridors to move goods,” Tate said. “That is not to say that we don’t also need to add capacity to the other modes. We do, including to our ocean ports and the connections to them. High speed rail could certainly compete with aviation at some point.”

In a fiscally-constrained environment, tough choices will have to be made by elected leaders, the ARTBA chairman said.

“Spreading the peanut butter around won’t cut it,” he said. “The question needs to be ‘What investments will give the American people as a whole the biggest return on their investment and help ensure a good quality of life for our grandchildren?’”

Tate lamented the nearly 10-month delay in passage of a new surface transportation bill and its impacts on the construction market. The current highway and transit program law—SAFETEA-LU—expired September 30, 2009. The current law is operating on its fourth short-term extension—the latest one expires December 31, 2010.

“At Caterpillar, we’ve had to lay off more than 20,000 employees over the past two years, in large part, because the domestic construction market has been so bad,” Tate said. “Contractors will not make investments in expensive new equipment if they are uncertain about the availability of future work. And the truth is, federal funding is what drives the state highway and transit construction programs.”

The best thing Congress and the President could do to foster economic growth and job creation is to pass a robust, multi-year reauthorization done right after the election or first thing in 2011, according to Tate.

“Again—tell the American public the truth. There will be a direct correlation between the economy and quality of life we leave our grandchildren and the investment choices the president, this agency and the Congress make in transportation over the next several years. Failure to make the hard choices is not an option,” Tate concluded.

Lack of such legislation is widely seen as contributing to the still gloomy jobless numbers posted today by the construction industry. Construction unemployment is 20.1 percent, giving this sector the dubious distinction of having the highest unemployment rate of any industry in the nation, according to NAPA.

“NAPA members are going to let Congress know, in no uncertain terms, that we need action on a multi-year transportation bill,” NAPA President Mike Acott said in a written statement. “Members of Congress have told us that they are not hearing from their constituents at home, but that is about to change.

“Hundreds of thousands of people at NAPA’s member companies helped to elect these representatives to solve the nation’s problems, not to point fingers. Along with our partners in the Transportation Construction Coalition, who represent additional hundreds of thousands of workers, NAPA is outraged that Congress continues to play politics with American jobs,” Acott continued.

NAPA has mobilized its members to meet with their elected officials during the July 4 recess, when U.S. Representatives and Senators are in their home districts.

“Our members are going to personally convey to their Representatives and Senators the importance of enacting a surface transportation bill now,” Acott said. “Our industry’s very survival, and the economic viability of these workers’ families, depends on the actions of Congress.”

NAPA has established a special Web site at www.hotmix.org/highwaybill to help with arranging meetings with Members of Congress.

​Ten months have passed since the expiration of SAFETEA-LU, the last surface transportation bill.

Congressional leaders have indicated that Congress would not take action on a multi-year reauthorization bill before the November elections.

As state and local governments slash highway spending, and the private markets remain soft, the transportation construction industry continues to lose jobs, NAPA says.

Current construction employment numbers mark three years of monthly declines, and brings the total decline in construction jobs since the peak in January 2007 to 2,226,000.

“Stimulus funding will begin to run out in the fourth quarter of 2010, casting an air of uncertainty over the 2011 highway market,” Acott said. “Transportation improvement projects are complex and may take several years to plan and construct. That’s why both the companies in our industry and the state Departments of Transportation need a multi-year highway bill. Planning is impossible in a climate of uncertainty. This does a disservice to the American people, who rely on the nation’s roads and highways for everything from emergency services to routine activities such as going to work, school, and worship.”

Since SAFETEA-LU expired, Congress has relied on short-term extensions to fund transportation construction, the latest of which will expire in December 2010. Additionally, over the past two years, the Highway Trust Fund has had to “borrow” $36 billion from general fund revenues, undermining the user-fee principle and the public’s trust. Without additional revenues, the state DOTs face a cut 30 to 50 percent in federal support as early as 2012.

“The Tailoring Rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency today does not solve the fundamental problems associated with regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, which is that failure to address the global dimension of the climate change issue will place U.S. manufacturers at a significant competitive disadvantage, costing valuable American jobs and actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Despite the proposed “tailoring” of the statutory requirements, EPA’s proposed regulation of stationary sources will discourage new investment and impose significant new costs on manufacturing industries at the worst possible time – just as the economy is in the early stages of what is likely to be a long, slow recovery from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

“All this latest EPA regulation does is arbitrarily pick winners and losers in terms of which facilities must comply immediately with the new permitting requirements. In the end, however, no business will be left untouched from EPA’s expansive interpretation of the Clean Air Act.

“Equally importantly, nothing in this rule will prevent the leakage of jobs and emissions to

unregulated countries like China, especially from energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries like steel. It is past time for Congress to step in and stop EPA from pursuing this job-killing regulatory approach.