highway trust fund

How bad is the proposal by House Republican leaders to fix the Highway Trust Fund’s shortfall by eliminating Saturday mail service?  Consider this: 26 unions representing hundreds of thousands of transportation workers today announced their vociferous opposition to the plan. To be sure these unions believe that stabilizing the Highway Trust Fund is a major […]

On behalf of the undersigned affiliated unions of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), we write to express our strong opposition to eliminating Saturday mail delivery service as a condition of fixing the impending shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund. This careless and ideologically driven attack on the employees at the United States Postal Service (USPS) should be a non-starter as it fails to offer a bipartisan plan to fund America’s immediate and longer-term surface transportation needs.

WASHINGTON, DC—Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues this statement on President Obama’s four-year surface transportation investment proposal: “We’re pleased that the President has declared it a priority of his Administration to fix the surface transportation funding crisis that is threatening our economy and American competitiveness. Today’s announcement for a $302 […]

If you rely on some form of surface transportation—car, bus, mass transit—to get around, you may be in for a shock later this year. The federal government’s Highway Trust Fund, which pays for the upkeep of our roads, bridges and public transit, could go broke as early as August unless Congress acts to restore its […]

Tonight, President Obama will declare 2014 “a year of action” to expand opportunities for the middle class. We can work with that. Transportation unions are focused like a laser on rebuilding the economy and the middle class by modernizing and expanding our transportation system, and along the way rescuing millions of Americans caught in the […]

[As published Dec. 27 by Edward Wytkind in the Huffington Post] Ebenezer Scrooge would love America’s approach to funding its transportation needs, but the miserly refusal by too many of our leaders to invest in transportation could haunt us for decades to come. That’s why our nation’s holiday wish list for 2014 must include a comprehensive […]

TTD was proud to stand with Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and other transportation advocates this week in support of new legislation that will fix the broken funding mechanism for our nation’s transit, highway and road safety programs. The bill, formally titled the Update, Promote, and Develop America’s Transportation Essentials (UPDATE) Act (H.R. 3636), would gradually […]

On any given day in Washington someone important makes a speech about the need to invest in our passenger and freight transportation system and put Americans to work.  Routinely that speech doesn’t answer the only question that matters: how do we pay for it?  We helped to answer that question today at a special House […]

Our economic strength is intrinsically linked to the condition of our transportation infrastructure. When channels are too shallow to receive large vessels, or railroads are located miles away from ports, unnecessary delays and congestion cause the flow of commerce to slow and cost our economy billions. As a result, our ability to compete in the international market and meet President Obama’s goal of doubling exports by 2015 is undermined. Thus, the national discussion about the state of our freight transportation system isn’t just another transportation policy debate; it’s about providing American businesses the infrastructure they need to distribute their products to the rest of the world and ensuring the U.S. remains a dominant force in the global marketplace.

Honors MAP-21 Funding Levels WASHINGTON, DC—Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) President Edward Wytkind issues this statement applauding the Senate for including surface transportation bill (MAP-21) funding levels in its FY 2013 appropriations package: “The Senate has wisely rejected the irresponsible cuts to mass transit and highways in the House Continuing Resolution (CR) funding bill, deciding […]