Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 01/2010

The Citizens' Guide to Transportation Reauthorization

Randal O'Toole

December 2009

The Cato Institute

Abstract

Sometime in 2010 or 2011, Congress expects to decide how to spend the $250 billion or more of federal gas taxes and other highway user fees that will be collected over the next six years. The process of doing so is called surface transportation reauthorization. A major point of contention in this law is how much of our transportation system should be centrally planned and how much should be built and operated in response to the needs of actual transportation users.