Transportation Secretary Briefs Senate Subcommittee on Fiscal Year 2016 Budget

Last week, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing in order to discuss the case for his department’s FY16 Budget request. Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) criticized the pay for mechanism proposed by the Obama Administration in the GROW AMERICA Act, which is the Administration’s proposal for a long-term highway bill. Specifically, the bill would be funded by a general fund transfer that is offset by mandatory repatriation of profits held overseas by U.S. corporations. Chairman Collins argued that this proposal does not generate steady revenue for the long term and that it is only a temporary patch.

Also during the hearing, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) questioned the Secretary on the progress of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours-of-service restart study. In the FY15 Appropriations bill, a provision was included to suspend part of FMCSA’s hours-of-service rule on restart provisions. According to Foxx, the congressionally-mandated study is well underway and should be complete by the end-of-year deadline.

For more information, contact Jill Landry at jlandry@nrmca.org.