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Sen. Boxer hears requests for transportation funding
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More from Local NewsAt a field hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-San Francisco, heard from a long list of Southern California politicians and government officials who said they need more money for roads and mass transit.
Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, held a similar hearing in Northern California as part of discussions leading to the reauthorization of the massive federal transportation bill. Every six years Congress lays out how to spend, at last count, about $200 billion in federal money on highway, transit and safety programs.
The bill, titled "MAP 21" Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, is not only meant to maintain the integrity of the nation's highways, but also will set long-term policy that will affect everything from air quality to the movement of goods and services.
"Nowhere is the need to improve goods movement more obvious than in California," Boxer said in statement issued Thursday.
California — particularly Southern California, through which some 45 percent of the nation's containerized traffic flows — is in dire need of solutions to deal with congested roadways, according to local officials.
"Freight handled by trucks is projected to double by 2035. Traffic through West Coast ports alone could nearly triple over the same period," Boxer said.
Among the speakers were Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and two panels of officials from all the Southern California counties.
Darren Kettle, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, spoke about how federal environmental regulation needed to be streamlined, while other local officials talked about the needs for transit and long-term funding sources.
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