Paving the way for highways and jobs

In just over 100 days, the 114^th Congress has broken through the gridlock and found bold solutions for major legislative issues, including the historic entitlement reform to repeal the flawed Medicare “doc-fix” once and for all.

The House of Representatives alone has passed more than 80 bills, such as the Keystone XL Pipeline Act, legislation to repeal the death tax, a package of reforms to stop human trafficking, and a budget that balances in less than 10 years. Congress has made progress, but this is just the beginning – we believe there is an opportunity to tackle two of the critical issues facing our nation at once in the coming months.

As the only two members of both the House Judiciary and the House Transportation and Infrastructure committees, we have been working towards funding a long-term highway bill and addressing the need for specialized, high-skilled workers. As we examined the specifics, we identified a nearly perfect win-win scenario in how these two priorities converge.

With the highway bill set to expire at the end of May, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is looking for ways to fund America’s vital infrastructure and to modernize our crumbling national transportation system. Congress cannot continue to pass short term patches that do nothing to address the underlying problem, and we can’t afford more taxes. With no clear alternative before us, we decided to take a look at the economic impact of the high-skilled worker program coming before the Judiciary Committee as a possible solution.

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