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| Date: | July 3, 2012 | | Contact Name: | Peter Winiecki | | Contact Phone: | 651-297-8077 | | Contact Email: | peter.winiecki@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| SENATE TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE CHAIR JOE GIMSE APPLAUDS CONGRESSIONAL END TO TRANSPORTATION EARMARKS |
St. Paul – State Senator Joe Gimse (R – Willmar), Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, applauded Congress on their approval of a new two-year transportation bill that re-authorizes federal highway and transit programs at current funding levels and ended the practice known as “earmarking” that picks transportation project winners and losers.
“This bill required an enormous amount of compromise by members of both the Republican led House and Democrat led Senate. After years of short-term extensions that left members of Minnesota’s construction industry in a lurch, there will now be some certainty that their jobs will be more secure as we move forward,” Gimse stated.
A major highlight included in the bill was the elimination of the practice known as earmarking. Earmarks were traditionally promoted by Members of Congress to provide funding for projects in their home state. But due to the lack of corresponding funds over the years by state and local transportation officials, some earmarks ended up being “orphaned” and became the equivalent of an uncashed check from the federal government.
“I wrote a letter to every member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation when I first became Senate Transportation Committee Chair in January of 2011. I urged them to oppose the earmarking process as it related to the funding of transportation projects in Minnesota,” Gimse commented. “I am pleased to see that Congress has agreed to end this practice that costed the State of Minnesota over $130 million in transportation dollars due to unused earmarks.”
Other highlights of the bill included the expansion of public-private partnerships, improving safety on high risk rural roads, the streamlining of the project delivery process, program reform/consolidation and a requirement for the development of an updated national bridge and tunnel inspection standard.
“In this day and age of limited financial resources and the need for greater safety on our rural highways, I am genuinely pleased by this fiscally sound legislation that was passed by the Congress,” Gimse said. “In order to stretch our precious tax dollars in Minnesota, we also need to look at innovative ways to collaborate with our public and private partners to finance the maintenance and preservation of our critical road, bridge and public infrastructure systems.”
