As appropriations bills for fiscal year 2007 advance on Capitol Hill, only a handful of infrastructure programs are posting increases, with gainers clustered mostly in transportation. In the latest action, the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 20 approved four 2007 bills, and included hikes in highway, transit and airport accounts.
David Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association senior vice president for government relations, attributes transport programs� relative success in fiscal 2007 to their user-fee financing and protections in last year�s Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Equity Act�a Legacy for Users and the 2003 �Vision 100� aviation statute. He says the numbers �fundamentally underscore the importance of the SAFETEA-LU and Vision 100 funding guarantees and the fact that these are dedicated-revenue supported programs.�