“I was appalled when I first heard about some of the things that GSA charged to taxpayers,” said Michaud, a senior member of the subcommittee. “Many of these expenses were in violation of rules designed to help small businesses and prevent excessive spending. In fact, according to the Inspector General’s report, those planning the conference were told to ‘make it over the top,’ and several suggestions to minimize expenses were ignored.”

At the hearing, Michaud urged GSA’s Inspector General to broaden its investigation into other conferences that took place in the past so that all issues of waste could be fully addressed. He also announced that he plans to offer an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill to prevent GSA from holding these types of conferences in the future.

“This Congress has had its share of disagreements over the best way to reduce federal spending and the deficit. However, I think we can all agree that there is no place for this kind of excess,” said Michaud. “The employees that put together this conference forgot that the federal government is supposed to work on behalf of the taxpayer. Families and small businesses throughout Maine should not have to pay for employees of the GSA to take lavish vacations in Las Vegas.”

“The transportation bill passed by the Senate is one that Democrats and Republicans can agree on. If Republican leaders in the House would just let us vote on it, we could get it on the President’s desk before the current funding runs out at the end of the month. But instead they are stuck on a highly partisan bill that slashes infrastructure investments and ends federal funding for the Downeaster,” said Pingree. said.

The House version of the transportation bill has proved so unpopular that Republican leaders haven’t even been able to bring it to the floor for a vote, while the bipartisan Senate version passed with a 74 to 22 vote.

In addition to the critical Downeaster funding, the bill provides funding for highway projects around the country—funding that runs out at the end of this month.

“Half the roads in this country and 70,000 bridges are in disrepair and structurally deficient,” Pingree said. “Passing this funding will support nearly 7,500 jobs in Maine and put thousands of people to work across the country repairing this critical infrastructure.”

The House bill eliminates a provision that has allowed the Downeaster passenger rail service to access $6 million a year in Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) funding. CMAQ funding is intended to support projects for a maximum of three years, but Congress has consistently granted waivers allowing the funding to continue for the Downeaster and other similar rail lines around the country. However, the proposed House bill does not allow an extension of that CMAQ funding while the version passed by the Senate does allow the funding to continue.

Pingree and Congressman Mike Michaud have sponsored an amendment to the House bill to also allow the Downeaster funding, but that bill has yet to be brought to the floor for a vote by House Republican leadership.

As a nation, we can’t afford to abandon infrastructure improvements. They are job creators, and they are necessary to our overall economic growth. Thankfully the Senate recently passed a bipartisan bill that will move us forward. With over 7,000 jobs in Maine on the line, it’s time for the House to act too.

As a longtime member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I know how critical it is to maintain and improve our highways and bridges. It not only provides for increased safety, but it also promotes productivity and boosts our nation’s competitiveness in the global marketplace.

But we have to do better than the status quo if we want to grow our economy and really move out of this recession.

That’s why I joined with my colleagues on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to introduce the bipartisan Senate transportation bill that recently passed by a vote of 74 to 22. We also called on House leaders to abandon their partisan transportation bill and bring the Senate bill up for immediate consideration.

The bill has a long title – the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act” (H.R. 14) – but a simple mission: to move our nation forward and create desperately needed jobs. The bill maintains investments for highways and public transportation, consolidates and streamlines highway programs, strengthens safety, eliminates earmarks, establishes a national freight program, institutes performance measures and improves accountability for transportation infrastructure investments. At a time when 50 percent of our nation’s roads are in disrepair and 70,000 bridges are structurally deficient, we can’t afford inaction on this issue.

Unlike the House bill, which slashes funding and eliminates over 500,000 jobs, MAP-21 continues current funding levels, sustaining approximately 1.9 million American jobs. Under the Senate bill, states will receive $3.8 billion more in highway construction funding than the House bill over the course of the next two years.

This transportation legislation is by far the biggest jobs bill Congress will consider this year. It has a significant impact on Maine too – according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Transportation, 7,400 jobs in our state would be supported by the funding levels contained in the bill.

But we must act soon. On March 31st, authorization for current transportation program funding will expire. If allowed to expire, transportation projects around the country will grind to a halt. We saw what happened when the Federal Aviation Administration programs were allowed to expire, and we can’t let history repeat itself. Our economic recovery can’t afford another massive shutdown.

Unfortunately, as I write this, House leaders are not planning to bring up the Senate-passed bill. Instead, they’ll seek to move a 3 month extension of current law, something that the Senate opposes. This would be the 9th of these short-term extensions, which removes certainty from transportation planning at a time our states can least afford it.

It is imperative that Congress gets a bill to the President as soon as possible. As our economy shows some additional signs of recovery, we can’t pull the rug out from under it by ignoring our critical infrastructure needs.

“The Downeaster is critical to communities throughout our state,” said Michaud. “A lot of hard work has gone into making it a success. As our economy continues to recover, it just doesn’t make sense to eliminate support for a service that Maine businesses and families rely on.”

Currently the Downeaster gets $6 million a year in Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) funding. CMAQ funding is intended to support projects for a maximum of three years, but Congress has consistently granted waivers allowing the funding to continue for the Downeaster and other similar rail lines around the country. However, the current transportation bill being considered by the House this week does not allow an extension of CMAQ funding for those rail lines, including the Downeaster.

“The Downeaster is one of the most successful and popular rail lines in the country,” said Pingree. “It has created economic development along its current route and we can already see the boost it’s giving to local businesses in Freeport and Brunswick where service will begin later this year. Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under the Downeaster by taking away this funding.”

Michaud and Pingree’s amendment would allow the U. S. Department of Transportation to continue funding rail lines with the CMAQ program for longer than three years. The Downeaster has been getting that federal funding for its entire ten years of existence and its current CMAQ funding will run out this fall.

House Republicans said today that they now expect put off a final vote on the bill (H.R. 7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012) until later this month.

“This is good news, and I will continue to do everything I can to support this provision,” said Michaud, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “Moving trucks off our local roads and onto the Interstate makes sense. It would be good for our economy, road safety, and our environment.”

The full text of the letter Michaud sent last month can be found below.

October 14, 2011

Dear Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Dicks, Chairman Inouye, and Ranking Member Cochran:

As you work on a final appropriations package for FY2012, I urge you to retain Section 126 of S.1596, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act of 2012. This section would renew and make permanent a one-year pilot project on truck weight limits in the State of Maine.

Current law forces heavy trucks traveling in Maine off the Interstate Highway System and on to small, local roads. Throughout 2010 a pilot program temporarily corrected this problem. During that period, I heard from individuals and organizations throughout Maine in support of the change. Fewer trucks rumbled past homes, schools, and hospitals. Information from the Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Department of Public Safety demonstrate the clear safety benefits of allowing these trucks on the Interstate.

Additionally, the pilot program made Maine businesses more competitive. Moving trucks off local roads and onto the Interstate reduces fuel consumption, cuts emissions, reduces travel times, and reduces the competitive disadvantage between Maine and the surrounding states that already allow higher weight limits. For these reasons and more, this change has the support of businesses throughout Maine, as well as the Maine State Legislature, Maine Department of Transportation, Maine Department of Public Safety, Maine State Police and Maine Chiefs of Police Association.

Unfortunately, Congress let this pilot program expire on December 17, 2010, forcing the heaviest trucks back onto Maine’s secondary roads. Since then, countless Mainers have expressed support for making the pilot program permanent. Section 126 of S.1596 would do just that, and I hope that you retain it during final negotiations over an appropriations package for FY2012.

With warmest regards,

MIKE MICHAUD
Member of Congress

Last November, the top federal official for public transit funding—Administrator Peter Rogoff—came to Portland at Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s invitation to talk to state and local officials about their transportation needs. Rogoff was able to see the area’s needs on a tour of Portland METRO’s garage facility. Today the federal Department of Transportation announced over $3 million for publictransit projects in Portland, South Portland and Sanford.

“To receive these very competitive grants is great news for Maine. We need this critical investment to maintain and strengthen Southern Maine’s public transportation infrastructure,” said Pingree. “With gas prices the way they are, Mainers need different choices for getting back and forth from work, shopping, and doctor’s appointments. Cities have been stretching their resources as far as possible to maintain this service under severe budget pressures. I’m glad they’ll finally be able to make the repairs, replacements, and improvements they’ve been waiting for.”

The Maine Department of Transportation will use the funds for:

· $1.1 million to Portland METRO for critical improvements to the main garage and repair facility, including lift and roof repairs.

· $640,000 for South Portland to replace two buses that have operated over 450,000 miles.

· $1.2 million for a transportation center project in Sanford, which will act as a hub for transportation services offered by the York County Community Action Corporation.

From Bangor to St. Francis and Holden to Bucksport, the potholes, cracks in the roads, and the sometimes impassable bridges damage our vehicles and make it harder for us to get where we need to go.

A recent national transportation study found that 19 percent of our state’s rural roads and 15 percent of all bridges were deficient. 36 percent of Maine’s major rural roads were rated mediocre or fair. In my county, Knox, roads and bridges were among the worst.

These numbers help explain why a recent contest to find the worst road in Maine generated hundreds of photos and stories of collapsed bridges, failed culverts and gaping potholes.

Problems with the Cumberland Street Bridge in Westbrook, which was temporarily closed this week, even made it onto President Obama’s list of reasons for Congress to invest in road improvements and pass his jobs bill.

The bridge is in such bad shape that pieces of it are falling off, after a worker found a 2-foot-by-3-foot hole in the bridge decking.

Lawmakers can not control Maine’s tough weather conditions that harm our roads; but we must prioritize funding to fix them.

A safe and strong transportation network is the foundation of a growing economy.

Our small businesses rely on our roads and bridges to move their products across the state and our working people depend on them to get to their jobs.

Problems with roads can damage our cars, block trucking routes, and- more seriously- cause fatalities.

Rather than making sensible investments in our roads, bridges, and our communities this year, Governor LePage and Republicans in the Legislature were more concerned about appeasing the “slash and burn” rhetoric of the far right.

They cut the highway budget by $230 million and refused to consider a bond package.

Mainers will have to pay for this pound-foolish policy with car repair bills.

The State Legislature must pass a responsible bond package next session to fix our damaged roads and to help improve our communities.

And Congress should pass the president’s jobs bill that invests in improving roads and schools across the country. It will free up money for cash-strapped states to invest in our local infrastructure.

Rep. Chellie Pingree and Rep. Mike Michaud have said Maine would stand to get a minimum of $138 million to fix our roads and bridges, if Congress passes the president’s jobs bill.

That would be a huge help to our state.

We cannot afford to delay targeted investment in Maine’s economy any longer.

The shortsighted road policy on the state level is the worst I’ve seen in my years as a veteran member and former chair of the Transportation Committee.

Public investment is proven to help our communities, from our roads to our schools. It translates to immediate jobs.

Politicians “talk the talk” on job creation, but until leaders take action Maine people will continue to pay the price. This should not be a partisan issue.
Hopefully next year we can hold a contest for the most improved road in the state.