All 535 members of the House and Senate received an urgent letter from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) today, requesting that Congress repeal an $8.7 billion rescission of highway contract authority. The rescission was written into SAFETEA-LU, the highway and transit authorization bill passed by Congress in 2005.

In his letter, AASHTO executive director John Horsley contends "...an additional $8.7 billion rescission will result in substantial, real program cuts, not merely a reduction of unused dollars on the books. Provisions in section 1132 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which require that the states apply the rescission proportionately across all programs, will exacerbate the problem by further reducing state discretion to make reductions according to priorities. The letter also states that the rescission must be repealed or "it will nullify the benefits from economic recovery efforts."

Click on the PDF icon above for the full text of the letter and a table showing the state-by-state distribution of the recission.