As the House considers amendments to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 22, the Highway bill, NTU urges Representatives to support those amendments that would help to improve the Highway Trust Fund’s fiscal outlook by eliminating waste, prioritizing roads-related projects, and empowering states.
To that end, NTU urges Representatives to vote “YES” on the following transportation-related amendments:
#1: King (R-IA), Duncan (R-SC), Foxx (R-NC), Amash (R-MI), Franks (R-AZ): This amendment would save considerable sums on many projects by prohibiting funding in H.R. 22 from being used to implement, administer, or enforce prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act.
#8: Hartzler (R-MO): This amendment would prohibit the use of funds for landscaping and roadside development in federal-aid highway construction.
#29: Ribble (R-WI), Schrader (D-OR), Rouzer (R-NC), Peterson (D-MN): This amendment would afford each state the option to raise truck-weight limits on Interstate Highways within their jurisdictions, from the current 80,000 pounds (five axles) to as much as 91,000 pounds (six axles). Such a move would provide a significant boost to the economic potential of the nation’s highway infrastructure while avoiding additional deficit spending.
#180: DeSantis (R-FL): This amendment would reduce the role of the federal government in state transportation decisions, empowering local leaders to fund and prioritize spending as best serves their communities.
#42: Rothfus (R-PA): This amendment would exempt reconstruction projects, due to an emergency, from costly and time-consuming permitting processes.
#144: Gosar (R-AZ) & #10 Young (R-IA): These amendments would increase transparency and accountability by tracking and making public data involved in rule-making and environmental review processes.
In addition, NTU urges Representatives to support amendments to the Export-Import (Ex-Im) bank that reduce both risk to taxpayers and harm to domestic competitors. These include, but are not limited to, the following amendments:
#55, #56, #60, #64, #65: Mulvaney (R-SC): These amendments would implement a number of much needed reforms that would limit the role of Ex-Im and reduce taxpayer risk including increased diversification requirements, limitations on authorizations to nations with large sovereign wealth funds, and removing Treasury guarantees for losses in certain instances.
#16: Schweikert (R-AZ): This amendment would require the application of fair value accounting principles to Ex-Im.
#28: Perry (R-PA), Mulvaney (R-SC): This amendment would increase the proportion
of Ex-Im programming for small businesses.
#8: Rothfus (R-PA): This amendment would require collateral or repayment guarantees on the part of borrowers or foreign governments, limiting risk to taxpayers.
#15: Westmoreland (R-GA): This amendment would allow companies alleging economic harm to appeal their protest directly to the Ex-Im Board of Directors.
Roll call votes on the above amendments to H.R. 22 will be included in our annual Rating of Congress and “YES” votes will be considered the pro-taxpayer position.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU Federal Affairs Manager Nan Swift at (703) 683-5700