News From ASET - March 16, 2004

Highway Reauthorization Bill still on hold in the House

Chairman Don Young has still brought the highway bill up for mark-up yet due to several discrepancies with the Bush Administration, the Senate and the leadership in the House. At issue is the spending level for the overall bill. While President Bush has vowed to veto any bill containing a gas tax, his budget is also over 100 billion dollars under the targeted amount that Chairman Young and Congressman Oberstar have allocated in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Senate is currently between President Bush and the House on their dollar figure and the Republican Leadership in the House has attempted to broker some form of compromise to achieve a reauthorization bill before the fall elections.

Rumors abound on whether there will be a six-year reauthorization bill signed in 2004 or not. Insiders are just as confused as the general public with ideas circulating to complete a temporary two-year bill, to sign a bill during the lame duck session of Congress after the fall elections, or to forge ahead with a bill this summer even under threats of a potential veto from President Bush.

Committee staff has indicated that Chairman Young will mark-up the highway bill on March 24th but this would be the third such planned mark-up and the first two came and went with last minute cancellations. If the mark-up does occur on the 24th then it is the hope of ASET that the Chairman, in his manager’s amendment, will include our legislative proposal. If we are unsuccessful then we will have to take another route, having a Member of Congress on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee sponsor and introduce an amendment during the committee deliberations before the bill is sent to conference. ASET is continuing to work with Colin Chapman, Chairman Young’s former Chief-of-Staff, to ensure the Chairman’s support of our issue. In addition, Chairman Young has received a letter from Congressman Rehberg, signed by twenty-seven Members of Congress currently, urging his support of our safe productivity legislation.

Fly-In a Big Success

ASET held our fly-in event on Wednesday, January 28 in Washington, DC. The event was well received by more than twenty-five company representatives from across the country. Role-playing in the morning set the stage for congressional meetings most of the day. At lunch, ASET members heard from Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT), sponsor of a letter to Chairman Young urging his support of the ASET legislation. John Ficker, President of NIT League, spoke to the group, as did ASET’s two Co-Chairmen, Steve Williams of Maverick Transportation and Robert Pugh of Georgia-Pacific Corporation. In all, ASET’s members broke into five groups and met with a total of forty Members of Congress and staff during the daylong event. ASET hosted a dinner the previous evening and even though there was a driving snowstorm at the time, nearly every single company representative made it to town - showing the true commitment toward this issue from our membership.

New Members to ASET

ASET is proud to welcome Heidtman Steel, Mizar Motors and Weyerhaeuser Company to its list of members. These companies joining ASET prove the diverse nature of our legislative proposal. A steel manufacturer, a motor carrier and a forest and paper company all joining the growing list of companies that would like to see our nation’s freight move more safely and efficiently on the country’s Interstates.