As representatives of 15 of the largest city transportation departments in the United States, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) opposes the proposed cuts to federal transportation funding. NACTO members call on Congress to renew its commitment to our roads, bridges and transit systems.

The nation’s transportation infrastructure is at a critical juncture. After years of delayed authorizations and chronic underfunding, some members of Congress have begun calling for cutting even further, despite the fact that multiple bipartisan commissions have found that the United States is underfunding infrastructure by hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the construction sector has an unemployment rate 1.5 times the national average. States and localities are struggling to maintain our current roads, bridges and transit systems and make improvements that the public demands.

“We cannot rebuild our economy without a strong transportation system,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City Transportation Commissioner and NACTO President. “We should be building for the future, not undermining the system we have already built.”

NACTO members depend on federal support for the Interstate system and other regional roadways that support our economic engines. They also depend on a healthy transit system, which is indispensable for moving people in the largest economic centers of the country. The New Starts program, which funds major transit improvements around the country, is vital to this work. Cutting or eliminating programs such as New Starts, Interstate Maintenance, and the Surface Transportation Program is a recipe for disaster. These cuts would delay large-scale transportation projects in cities that will bring needed congestion relief and repair existing vital connectors, ultimately increasing the cost of all of these projects, as well as the costs to the public in the meantime.

NACTO urges Congress to oppose cuts to surface transportation programs in the annual budget and to pass a new transportation authorization bill that works for America’s cities.