"Everybody agrees on what needs to be done for America in terms of building roads, fixing up bridges, more transit," LaHood said during a speech at a ceremony opening a new cement plant in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, along the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, KMOX radio reported. "The only thing we need to do is find five- to six-hundred billion dollars."

During a second appearance last Friday at a reauthorization listening tour in Bismarck, North Dakota, the secretary acknowledged the challenge of coming up with the necessary investment level.

"There's only one thing stopping us and that's $600 billion," LaHood said, the Bismarck Tribune reported. "There's going to be limited resources. In some cases, people are going to have to set aside this issue or that issue."

John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, e-mailed LaHood on Wednesday to applaud his comments regarding a robust funding level for the next six-year bill reauthorizing federal highway and transit programs.

"That is the position AASHTO has been advocating for the last three years," Horsley wrote. "It is enormously helpful to have the secretary of transportation speak out on this issue. Thank you for your leadership."

Horsley said having the secretary's support for the passage of a multiyear highway and transit bill that sustains funding at levels necessary to maintain and modernize America's transportation systems is invaluable.

"The decisions we make today about investment in roads, bridges, and mass transit will effect millions of Americans living today and for generations to come," Horsley said. "AASHTO and its member state departments of transportation stand ready to assist the secretary and members of Congress in securing a bill as soon as possible."

AASHTO's reauthorization plan offers specific proposals for programmatic and funding levels. It is available at AreWeThereYet.transportation.org. Information on specific needs for new highway capacity is available from an AASHTO report at expandingcapacity.transportation.org.

A draft reauthorization bill was approved a year ago by the House Highways & Transit Subcommittee. It proposes an investment level of $450 billion for highways and transit plus $50 billion for high-speed rail. That measure has not advanced in the full House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

The last surface transportation authorization expired last September and has been temporarily extended at Fiscal Year 2009 funding levels until the end of this calendar year. (see March 19 AASHTO Journal story) LaHood since last summer has supported a delay of reauthorization until Spring 2011.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-West Virginia and vice chairman of the House T&I Committee, wrote in a Roll Call commentary piece this week that a dedicated pool of federal revenue sufficient to meet the growing needs of the nation's aging transportation system must be found.

"It is essential that we do a multiyear transportation bill large enough to meet our critical needs and to stimulate jobs," Rahall wrote. "Everyone loses when we have a series of short-term transportation and infrastructure patches that do not address our national long-term needs."

A report by stateline.org last week notes that states increasingly are trying just to keep up with maintenance on existing roads and bridges instead of building new ones or rebuilding old ones, yet only a few states this year have come up with new money to spend on transportation projects. No state this year has increased its gasoline tax, and only a handful of states enacted gas-tax hikes last year. That means many states are increasingly looking to Washington for an infusion of transportation dollars.