McCaskill: Lack of Long-Term Infrastructure Funding ‘like putting a Band-Aid on a cancer’

WASHINGTON – May 20, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today slammed the failure of Republican leaders in Congress to reauthorize highway funding and other long-term infrastructure projects, calling the alternative short-term fixes a “Band-Aid on a cancer.”

“We don’t have a bill, and highway funding runs out in about ten minutes,” McCaskill said. “… it seems to me that what we’re trying to do is put a Band-Aid on a cancer, which is the inability of Congress to step up to the plate and do the mandated, hard work of finding the resources to fund infrastructure.”

At a hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on proposals to restructure the air traffic control system and ongoing modernization efforts of the Federal Aviation Administration, McCaskill also scrutinized efforts to privatize the federal air traffic control system, questioning the efficacy of efforts to turn government functions into private entities.

McCaskill continued: “We need to do something for our infrastructure. We are short-changing our country in a dramatic fashion when it comes to infrastructure, and that includes our airways… I am skeptical… about turning over an inherently government function to private corporations.”

McCaskill recently denounced the lack of long-term funding for the highway bill, which runs out this week. She also recently discussed with Missouri’s transportation chief the critical need for a long-term federal funding commitment to transportation infrastructure, the challenges Missouri faces in meeting its cost-share obligations as state funding for infrastructure dwindles, and the importance of infrastructure investments to make the state’s roads and bridges safer, and spur economic growth. With 33,702 miles of highway, Missouri has the nation’s seventh largest state highway system, with more miles than Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas combined.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/consumers to learn more about McCaskill’s fight to protect American consumers.