Highway Bill Sent to White House
The 5-year, $305 billion highway bill was sent to the White House December 3. The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act includes funding for highways, public transit, Amtrack and highway safety programs. It also renews the Export-Import Bank and restores a crop-insurance subsidy, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Highway funding has survived with a long-running series of short-term patches, leading to uncertainty in the highway and heavy construction sector. When finalized, the bill offers some assurance of at least five years of funding for construction and repair projects. FAST also will stimulate more than $13 billion in equipment sales, rental and maintenance activity, according to Associated Equipment Distributors (AED).
Brian P. McGuire, the group's president and CEO, said "we finally have long-term, fully funded highway legislation. The FAST Act is the culmination of more than a decade’s worth of effort by AED and its industry allies. Thanks in particular to all the equipment industry leaders who kept the political pressure on Congress to get the job done."
The sales, rental and repair of equipment will support more than 4,000 dealership jobs each year, the group noted.
"The FAST Act is a major victory for transportation advocates and we thank Speaker Ryan for making it the top priority during his first weeks in office,," he added. "But our work isn’t finished. AED will continue to press Congress to create new, sustainable revenue streams for the Highway Trust Fund to ensure the chaos surrounding the program in recent years is an historical aberration and not the new normal.”
More information is available at www.aednet.org.
PRO CONTRACTOR RENTALS MAGAZINE
Pro Contractor Rentals provides information of value to rental centers who focus time, resources and attention on meeting the demands of construction contractors and other equipment rental customers.
