Skip to main content

AEM “great disappointment” over US Highway Bill delay

A SENIOR American manufacturing association figure has renewed his call for Congress to pass a Highway Bill – after a 90-day extension of the US federal surface transport programme was agreed by the House of Representatives. Speaking as president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and on behalf of US equipment manufacturers and the I Make America campaign, AEM president Dennis Slater said: "It has been 911 days and eight extensions since the last highway bill expired.
April 11, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A SENIOR American manufacturing association figure has renewed his call for Congress to pass a Highway Bill – after a 90-day extension of the US federal surface transport programme was agreed by the House of Representatives.

Speaking as president of the 1100 Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and on behalf of US equipment manufacturers and the I Make America campaign, AEM president Dennis Slater said: "It has been 911 days and eight extensions since the last highway bill expired. It is a great disappointment to the nearly 21,000 supporters of the I Make America campaign, U.S. equipment manufacturers, and their tens of thousands of employees that Congress must resort for the ninth time to a short-term extension to prevent our nation's critical transportation programs from shutting down.

"Because current funding expires on March 31st, there is unfortunately no choice but for Congress to pass the ninth extension of this vital national program. But enough is enough. The House must act immediately within this extension period to pass its highway bill and move to conference with the Senate.”

Slater said a Highways Bill would “immediately” create American jobs, and drive US economic growth and global competitiveness for the long-term.

Supported by the AEM’s 850 plus member companies, the I Make America campaign for a Highway Bill is also said by AEM to be backed by the memberships of like-minded associations, American business owners, and citizens and local elected officials across the US.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Uruguay’s transport investment is seeing major gains
    August 1, 2017
    Uruguay’s road development programme will help deliver economic growth for the future - Gordon Feller reports. Uruguay is embarking on a new nationwide programme to rehabilitate 890km of roads, and the government intends to improve an additional 260km of dangerous highways and roads. This three-year programme aims to reduce traffic accidents, in part thanks to a US$70 million loan recently authorised by the World Bank’s board of directors. The new operation uses a special financing instrument known as “Prog
  • Road deaths: 'something must change' - GHSA
    March 4, 2024
    The ‘grim and tragic milestone' of a total four million deaths in the US requires renewed road safety action, says the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).
  • Highway 407 Revisited – smart tollroad extension
    June 7, 2016
    In the late 1990s, World Highways published a supplement on construction of Canada’s Highway 407, the world’s first all-electronic toll road. But how successful has it been? David Arminas reports from Toronto The head office for 407 ETR Concession Company is a low-rise building next to exit 59, just north of Toronto, Canada’s economic powerhouse. The building may be non-descript but inside is the advanced technical heart of Highway 407 ETR – Express Toll Route. It houses the latest toll monitoring techno
  • Road maintenance crisis hits UK and US, as experts gather in Paris
    January 9, 2015
    The road maintenance crisis in the United Kingdom and the United States is deepening amid estimates that it will take millions of dollars to stop highway infrastructure from crumbling, including falling prey to potholes. A recent report by the BBC in the UK said that at least one municipal council, the city of Leeds, is facing a bill of nearly US$153 million to patch up its potholed roads. In the United States, Senator Bernie Sanders is t