Republican Congress Heading 'Toward Imminent' Construction Shutdown

When Speaker Boehner and House Republicans recently punted the Highway Trust Fund, groups representing industry and thousands of workers from across the country warned of the short-term patches and urged the dysfunctional Republican Congress to provide long-term certainty for our crumbling infrastructure.

The GOP is clearly ignoring their calls.  From POLITICO:

Congress is hurtling toward an imminent funding cliff for highways and bridges with no apparent plan to avoid a summertime construction shutdown.  

There are emerging divisions between House and Senate GOP leaders, who now have fewer than six weeks to deal with a vexing highway problem that's been unsolved for seven years and costs billions just to keep on life support…

In the House, Republicans have basically given up on finding the tens of billions of dollars they'd need for a long-term fix for the nation's crumbling roads and bridges.  Instead, they're mulling how to pay for the latest punt.  But on the other side of the Capitol, Senate Republicans refuse to admit defeat, even though they have yet to come up with the huge sums of money they'd need for a major extension.

The Fiscal Times describes the impact of Republican inaction that is threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs and stalling economic growth in communities across America:

As Americans begin taking to the road for summer holidays, the controversy in Washington over a new highway funding bill appears as intractable as ever, despite widespread complaints about pothole-strewn roads and the threat of layoffs in the construction industry as project funds run out.

The long-underfunded Federal Highway Trust Fund is riding on fumes and could effectively run out of money…Without new fiscal 2016 federal highway funding, most states will have to shelve highway and mass transit projects, cut back on repaving efforts and toss thousands of construction workers out of their jobs.

The Republican Shutdown of 2013 cost American taxpayers $24 billion.  A GOP shutdown of summer construction projects will affect our country's collapsing roads and bridges.