Are Campaign Contributions Greasing the Wheels for New Highway Construction?

The nation has 73,000 crumbling bridges, but year after year startlingly few federal transportation dollars go to fixing them.

In 2008, Congress directed only 74 of the 704 highway projects earmarked in the transportation appropriations bill to repair or maintain a bridge, tunnel, or overpass.  

Only about ten percent of the projects, and about ten percent of the funding, focused on fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Most of the $570 million went for new highways and other new construction.

Millions of dollars also flowed in another direction, from highway construction companies and the trade associations that represent them to the campaign coffers of elected officials in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.

Were those dollars “greasing the wheels” in our state and federal capitols?

PennPIRG’ new report, Greasing the Wheels: the Crossroads of Campaign Money and Transportation Policy looks at the 2008 transportation appropriations bill using data never before available, laying out the details of Congress’ earmark requests. The report, released on Thursday, also examines the campaign contributions from highway construction interests both here in Pennsylvania and nationally.