BILL NUMBER: SJR 24CHAPTERED BILL TEXT RESOLUTION CHAPTER 66 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JUNE 16, 2014 ADOPTED IN SENATE MAY 1, 2014 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 12, 2014 INTRODUCED BY Senator DeSaulnier (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Lowenthal) APRIL 21, 2014 Relative to the federal Highway Trust Fund. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SJR 24, DeSaulnier. Federal Highway Trust Fund. This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to stabilize the federal Highway Trust Fund by developing a long-term plan to promote adequate federal Highway Trust Fund revenues, as specified. WHEREAS, A safe, efficient, and reliable surface transportation network is vital to California's future economic growth, quality of life, and security; and WHEREAS, Inadequate investment in California's highway and bridge infrastructure system is having a dramatic impact on the citizens of California, causing them to spend too much time idling on increasingly congested roads and bridges rather than with their families; and WHEREAS, The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), that authorized the federal highway and public transportation programs, will expire September 30, 2014; and WHEREAS, The federal Highway Trust Fund and its user fee-based revenue stream supports all federal investment in highway and bridge improvements and the vast majority of the federal public transportation program; and WHEREAS, The federal Highway Trust Fund experienced revenue shortfalls in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012 that created uncertainty about federal surface transportation investment commitments; and WHEREAS, The United States Department of Transportation will begin slowing reimbursements to states for already approved federal-aid projects as early as July of this year to preserve a positive balance in the federal Highway Trust Fund; and WHEREAS, The Congressional Budget Office reports the federal Highway Trust Fund will be unable to support any new highway or public transportation spending in the 2015 fiscal year absent congressional action to increase trust fund revenues; and WHEREAS, Eliminating federal highway and public transportation investment in one year would threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide and severely disrupt California's long-term transportation improvement plans; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges timely action by the President and the Congress of the United States to stabilize the federal Highway Trust Fund by developing a long-term plan to promote adequate federal Highway Trust Fund revenues that achieves all of the following: (a) Continues an appropriate role for the federal government in sustaining a viable national transportation system. (b) Contributes to deficit reductions and economic growth. (c) Ensures the integrity of the surface transportation program and resists funding diversions that have been harmful to public support. (d) Allows the Congress to pass a reauthorization of the federal highway and public transportation programs before MAP-21 expires; and be it further Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the Senate, each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.