In a fiscal environment that requires Congress to maintain fiscal restraints it has become increasingly difficult to fund major transportation projects. However, the U.S. depends on a modern, comprehensive and interconnected nationwide surface transportation system.

To combat this complex problem we need to promote the access to and use of innovative financing tools to get the job done. Innovative financing tools such as private activity bonds, state infrastructure banks, toll credits and streamlining of important engineering processes such as the design-build process are essential elements of a comprehensive approach to infrastructure improvement.

In 2003, the Texas State Legislature approved pioneering transportation bill allowing for the creation of the Trans Texas Corridor, the future of transportation in Texas.

To help underscore the need for the Trans Texas Corridor, it was essential that all stakeholders understood the state’s current transportation challenges. Between 2000 and 2025, the population of Texas will increase by almost 9 million people. Ninety percent, or almost 8 million of them, will live in major metropolitan areas.

To address this explosive population growth, the State of Texas had three underlying issues it needed to address in order to achieve an efficient and effective transportation infrastructure system for the 21st Century:
First, the current pay-as-you-go funding system only covers about a third of our needs.
Second, the state’s population growth is putting additional strain on our aging roadways, and
Third, it takes too long to get roads built.

The solution to these problems was implementing the Trans Texas Corridor. Last year, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law House Bill 3588, the most significant transportation legislation in state history. The Trans Texas Corridor would separate car and truck lanes and significantly improve safety and reduce pollution by moving similar traffic more efficiently. The Corridor will also be designed to avoid building on existing roadways whenever possible so driver inconvenience will be minimized. Most importantly, the Corridor will go around – not through – urban areas which will provide traffic relief and support local air quality efforts.

In July 2003, I introduced H.R. 2864, The Reforming, Accelerating, and Protecting Interstate Design Act of 2003, otherwise known as the RAPID Act. The bill allows large transportation systems to be built in less time and saves money by constructing roads incrementally, as they are needed.

Among other things, the RAPID Act would streamline and expedite project delivery by allowing an environmental assessment to be prepared simultaneously for several different elements of a project. The current federal process adds unnecessary delays to project development, leading to extra costs and needless delays. The RAPID Act also expands a state's authority to collect tolls on interstate highways and expand the eligible uses of toll revenues collected on those facilities.

Texas needs the authority to design and build roads concurrently, not sequentially. By allowing environmental studies to move ahead of a project, we will be able to have roads where they are needed, when they are needed.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the federal surface transportation reauthorization bill, H.R. 3550, which includes three amendments to the design-build process established under TEA-21 to improve the operation of the design-build authority. Although the House bill does not include the exact design-build streamlining language I was hoping for, the House bill language allows us to continue negotiations on streamlining the design-build process during the upcoming conference committee.

I am committed to working on TEA-21 reauthorization this year to address the long-term needs associated with innovative financing and streamlining the design-build process. The Congress continues to work to produce a bill that adequately provides for our economic security, creates and sustains jobs, enhances safety and continues to improve mobility for our nation’s citizens.

I believe the innovative financing strategies and policies, developed in Texas and further addressed in the H.R. 3550, are steps in the right direction toward achieving the goal of an efficient and effective transportation system for all of America.