Many times during his presidency, and even when he was initially campaigning for the office, President Obama has spoken about the country’s crumbling infrastructure. Take November 2011, for example: “Our aging transportation infrastructure costs American businesses and families about $130 billion a year. That’s a tax on our businesses; that’s a tax on our consumers. It is coming out of your pocket. It’s a drag on our overall economy. And if we don’t act now, it could cost America hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs by the end of the decade.”
Obama certainly is not the only person who has noted the need to invest in bridges and roads. Studies show that nearly one in four of the nation’s bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and the American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that the average U.S. motorist spends $324 a year on mechanic visits necessitated by deteriorating roads. Yet the problem could be exacerbated — and soon — if Congress does not act to bolster the Highway Trust Fund.
Most big transportation projects — bridges, extensive road repairs, new highways — are paid for by a combination of local, state, and federal funds, with the federal portion coming from the Highway Trust Fund. That fund is rapidly running out of money, a demise facilitated by years of neglect, and the federal government is expected to begin delaying payments to states as early as this summer. As The Wall Street Journal reported, “Congress has tackled or punted many of the ‘must pass’ bills of 2014, but evaporating highway money looms like a pothole on the road to midterm elections.”
For some states, such as Oregon, that could have dire and immediate consequences. According to a study by Pew Charitable Trusts, between 35 percent and 40 percent of Oregon’s highway and transit funds come from the federal government. Washington ranks toward the low end of the list, with less than one-quarter of such funding coming from the feds.