Fast Facts: Transportation Empowerment Act

Blog Articles · Feb 10, 2015 · Infrastructure

Transportation Empowerment Act

  • Empowers states to set transportation spending priorities and enables them to determine the best funding sources.
  • Transitions control from federal to state over a five-year period, avoiding disruption.
  • Lowers the federal gas tax from 18.4 cents per gallon to 3.7 cents over the same time period; states would be free to increase their state gas taxes or find other funding mechanisms.
  • Reduces red tape, including the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements and other federal mandates.
  • Enables greater private-sector participation in funding and financing capital-intensive projects

Heritage Research

Support From Others

  • "Shifting power toward taxpayers and their local and state governments is the right direction to take." Kyle Wingfield, "End D.C.'s Highway Robberty," Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  • "Congress has created the perception that all states are enriched by federal largesse, while it has created uses the money to keep control over any state that might stray into finding innovative solutions." Dennis Polhill, Senior Fellow, Independence Institute, "A Chance to Bring Transportation Power and Money Back to the States," Denver Post, December 6, 2013, http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_24672758/chance-bring-transportation-power-and-money-back-states#ixzz2rc2kcg7Q.