Infrastructure

TTD President Larry I. Willis highlighted for lawmakers the ways failing to invest in our transportation system impacts real people during separate hearings before the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Commerce Committees earlier this week. Citing commuters stuck in soul-crushing commutes, families burdened by a lack of public transit options, and aviation workers who […]

On behalf of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) and our 32 affiliated unions, I want to first thank Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves for inviting me to testify before you today. And let me offer my congratulations to the new and returning members of this committee.  

Each of you asked to serve on this committee because you recognize the incredible and important role our transportation network plays in creating and sustaining good paying jobs and facilitating the world’s most advanced economy.   

And, more often than not, this committee demonstrates to the American people that party affiliations in Washington, D.C. can represent a wealth of good ideas, and not just lines in the sand.

Your willingness to work across those lines, which too often divide us as a country, was evident last year when you passed a long-term reauthorization of our nation’s air transportation programs and when you continued the committee’s tradition of funding our water resources projects. It was also evident three years ago when you passed a five-year reauthorization of our transit, highway, and rail programs.

We’re calling on Congress to ignore the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which suggests reducing our budget deficit by making massive cuts to federal transportation and infrastructure investments.

Raising funds for infrastructure falls under the jurisdiction of the Ways and Means Committee. They’ve put together subcommittees to focus on many of our major national needs: health care, social security, tax policy, trade, and so on. But when it comes to infrastructure, that hasn’t been the case.

In 1897, when public transit was practically unheard of, America’s first subway system opened, setting the stage for public transportation throughout the country and across the world. At the time of its construction in 1913, Grand Central Terminal was the largest construction project in New York City’s history, and one of the first all-electric buildings […]