Kay Bailey Hutchison: “earlier this week, I offered an amendment, which was passed unanimously, to eliminate the ability to toll existing…”

“earlier this week, I offered an amendment, which was passed unanimously, to eliminate the ability to toll existing interstate highways. I did this because I believe in using our tax dollars that we collect to support the Federal interstate highway program. But we ought to do it fairly. The majority of the highway system was designed in the 1950s to meet the needs of the westward expansion of a rapidly growing nation. Today, we face different needs. For example, new areas of population growth, especially along the southern tier, require new infrastructure, and also with the trade coming from NAFTA, we are seeing an even more increasing load that adds to the transportation burdens of our border regions. Strong trade partnerships with Mexico and Canada have provided great benefits for us, but the resulting traffic is damaging the highway network in my State and others, such as Arizona and Michigan. Most of the goods in our economy ride on our Nation's highways. In large part, over the past 50 years, the Federal highway aid program has assisted the States in producing one of the world's finest highway networks. To meet our needs, Congress must reauthorize surface transportation programs this year. States are responsible for converting the resources this legislation provides into infrastructure that allows traffic to move efficiently, and we want and need to undertake that construction.…”