Congress continued to make progress on funding for transportation and infrastructure programs this past week with the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s review of the Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012 (H.R. 7), drafted and introduced by the committee’s chairman, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.).

This is an issue of importance to the American Rental Association (ARA) because of the jobs and additional certainty long-term investment can create for those in the construction equipment rental business and their customers.

H.R. 7 would lengthen the current six-month extension through the end of the 2012 fiscal year and provide funding for 2013-2016. It also assumes that the Ways and Means committee will restructure the Highway Trust Fund instead of the current Highway Account, which funds all of the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the highway safety programs of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a Mass Transit Account.

Total obligations appear to amount to $259.4 billion over five years. The bill authorizes funding from a Highway Account and an Alternative Transportation Account. The appropriation of an additional $10.5 billion from the general fund is authorized for mass transit, but the Appropriations Committee will have the final say on those spending levels.

ARA has joined Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) and Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) in sending a letter to Rep. Mica in support of H.R. 7, expressing the need for investment in the transportation network and applauding the bill’s long-term reauthorization that can provide stability to federal surface transportation programs and serve as an engine for economic growth.

Click here for additional background information on this issue from last week’s Rental Pulse.

Click here for the full text of the letter to Rep. Mica.