Lowey Calls on House to Pass Highway Bill
Standing along Elmsford’s busy Saw Mill River Road with two-dozen local officials and construction labor leaders, Rep. Nita Lowey called on House Republicans to put partisanship aside and reauthorize federal transportation funding before it expires on June 30.
“Continuing to stall just threatens the well-being of the economy and delays construction projects throughout the country,” Lowey (D-Harrison) said. “If we don’t pass this bill, it’s very hard for businesses to make plans, planning ahead, hiring people, and that is of great concern to all those who are represented here today.”
Since the last multi-year federal bill funding the country’s transportation system expired in 2009, Congress has passed nine temporary extensions but has yet to agree on a long-term solution. Lowey is pushing the Republican-controlled House to sign onto a two-year plan that passed 74-22 with bi-partisan support in the Senate.
“House Republicans are dragging their feet,” Lowey declared. “We should be working together. We don’t have a Republican road or a Democratic road. We have to get people to work.”
The $109 billion two-year bill, which passed the Senate on March 14, would continue to fund transportation at the current level, plus inflation. The House, though, has passed a five-year plan which green-lights construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. That bill hasn’t received support in the Senate, and Rep. Nan Hayworth, a Republican from Bedford, said the Senate should sign onto the House plan.
“We have to be disciplined, and the House transportation bill allows for that discipline,” Hayworth said in an interview with The White Plains Examiner, adding that the Senate bill is more costly. “The House isn’t the holdup. The Senate is.”
Among the projects funded, Lowey said, would be an access ramp from I-287/87 to 9A in Elmsford.
“We all believe that the 9A project is imperative,” Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner explained. “It will reduce traffic congestion. It will improve the quality of life for businesses and for motorists.”
Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester and Hudson Valley, Inc., said passage of the bill would help a struggling industry.
“The construction industry is experiencing some extreme unemployment and certainly a jobs bill of this kind would make a great difference,” Pepe said. Short-term funding, he added, “is not the answer. We need a solid, multi-year transportation act to make sure that we get people back to work, to make sure that our economy moves forward.”
Lowey said the bill would create 113,000 jobs in New York and stressed that helping construction workers would have a snowball effect.
“They’re able to go to the malls and spend money and that’s probably the most important thing you can do to get this economy moving again,” she said. “We’re talking about real jobs for real projects that are going to make a difference here in New York.”
Hayworth, though, said Congress must save money where possible in order to tackle the nation’s $15.8 trillion debt.
“It all adds up,” she said. “We are spending more than a trillion dollars in excess of what we bring in for the fourth year in a row.”
Hayworth added that the Keystone XL project will help bring in revenues, calling it “an important component.”
The Senate bill would up employer contributions to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which is also at odds with the House bill.
Also backing Lowey on the bill were Westchester Legislator MaryJane Shimsky (D-Hastings-on-Hudson), Elmsford Village Administrator Michael Mills, John Ravitz of the Westchester Business Council and several others from the construction industry.
Maria Veronica Roman contributed to this article.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
