LaHood said he's positive that the timetable can be met even with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and pledges of spending austerity from many members of Congress. That's because Congress recognizes that transportation funding is a bipartisan issue that benefits the nation through improved infrastructure and enhanced job-creation, LaHood said, according to a report from the trade publication DC Velocity.

"There are no Republican or Democratic roads," LaHood said. "There are no Republican or Democratic bridges."

The 2005 surface transportation authorization law known as "SAFETEA-LU" expired on Sept. 30, 2009, and has been temporarily extended by Congress six times. The current extension expires March 4. (see Dec. 21 AASHTO Journal story)

LaHood reiterated the Obama administration's opposition to a proposal to increase federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel to better fund transportation programs, maintaining the White House's stance that it's unwise to raise fuel taxes during a period of high unemployment and still-uncertain economic prospects. The federal fuels tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel has not been raised since 1993.

The day after LaHood spoke in Atlanta, one of his top deputies told the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting in Washington that the Obama administration is refining its proposal for a multiyear highway and transit policy reauthorization and will release details "relatively soon."

Roy Kienitz, undersecretary of transportation for policy, said policy discussions can progress to another level once the administration makes its official proposal, BNA reported.

Kienitz discussed the administration's desire to condense the myriad transportation programs currently in existence. Consolidating a vast number of programs will prove challenging, Kienitz said, but the administration still hopes to reduce the 108 surface transportation programs "down into a much shorter, simpler list."

John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, sounded an optimistic note on reauthorization at a separate event Wednesday at Washington's Union Station.

"We think we've got the key players to move forward," Horsley said. "We think this is our year to get the bill done."

New House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Florida, will have to shepherd a reauthorization bill through the Republican-controlled House. Mica told the Transportation Nation blog he does not support some of his colleagues' calls to cut the federal fuel taxes.

"It's almost impossible to drop the rate," he said. "But what we will be looking at in the next authorization bill are alternate means of financing so that the revenues can be stabilized. We'll look at how to do more, as I said, with less. Maybe cutting some of the frill programs. And giving states more discretion. And then prioritizing how we spend federal money."

ARTBA Urges Obama to Use Next Week's Address to Raise Transportation Issue

In a letter sent to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, American Road and Transportation Builders Association President Pete Ruane raised concern that absent a robust federal surface transportation program reauthorization, signs are pointing to a severe contraction in the domestic transportation construction market in up to half the states as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds are exhausted this year.

"The result will be more job losses in the construction sector," Ruane wrote to the president. "You have publicly stated that enactment of a strong, six-year surface transportation program reauthorization is now a priority for your administration. Over the last six months, however, there has been no tangible movement toward enactment of a long-term surface transportation bill, which is now 15 months overdue."

Ruane notes that construction industry unemployment has continued to rise and is now almost 21%, more than double the national average, and that 14 states have already announced another round of significant budget cuts.

"Your active and aggressive leadership is urgently needed now to break the languor in Congress and avert the serious short- and long-term economic consequences of allowing the nation's surface transportation improvement programs to take a several decades step backward," the letter states. "We urge you to put the Congress on notice in your State of the Union address [Jan. 25] that you expect them to work with you as a top priority now to produce a bipartisan transportation investment program that will put millions of Americans back to work and position America for continued and future economic growth and competitiveness."