Last week, the CEO Council for Growth traveled to Washington, D.C. with several of its member organizations to meet with congressional Members and underscore the need for a long-term transportation reauthorization that contains new, adequate, and sustainable funding.  Meeting participants were Thomas A. Caramanico, President at McCormick & Taylor; Peter M. Grollman, Vice President, Government Affairs, Community Relations & Advocacy at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Richard Wood, Director of Government Relations & Sustainability at Wawa, Inc.; Lisa Crutchfield, Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Affairs at Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; Claire Greenwood, Director at CEO Council for Growth; and Anselm Sauter, Manager at CEO Council for Growth.

Congress has until July 31 to provide sustainable new funding to Highway Trust Fund and pass a long-term spending bill.  Based on the meetings, it is unlikely that this will happen in time.  Instead, a more probable short-term funding patch and continuing resolution will allow more time for debate in advance of a new deadline sometime in the fall.  Both the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees will hold hearings this week to explore the feasibility of various ideas that provide a sustainable long-term solution to the Highway Trust Fund shortfall.  The Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee plan to hold a markup of a 6-year reauthorization on June 23rd which could represent the first draft of the reauthorization bill.

CEO Council participants met with Senator Bob Casey, Jr., and Congressmen Ryan Costello, Charlie Dent, Chaka Fattah, Pat Meehan, and Bill Shuster.  Our delegation also met with staff from the offices of Senators Carper and Toomey.

The CEO Council will continue to work with our representatives in Congress to ensure enactment of stable and growing transportation revenues that will match the total transportation financing need through increased investments above inflation in a safe and reliable transportation infrastructure.

For a copy of the CEO Council policy principles that were discussed with the Members of Congress, please click here.