May 29, 2012
The CRSI Washington Alert is produced by the Transportation Legislative Subcommittee to relay legislative activities
affecting the industry that require action by members. The Legislative Subcommittee is chaired by Philip Bell of Gerdau;
the staff liaison is CRSI Government Affairs Consultant Barbara Burchett.
House – Senate Conference Committee Works on a Compromise
Highway and Transit Bill Conference
After the Senate passed a reauthorization bill in March and the House passed an extension of current
funding, Congress is currently in a conference committee to work out a final bill on federal funding
and reforms for the highway program. If consensus is achieved, a conference report will go to both
chambers for an up-or-down vote and, if passed, goes to the President to sign into law.
The current extension of the existing program expires June 30. The conference report will need to be
passed before that date.
CRSI supports a bill with a minimum funding level of $109 billion for two years – as the Senate bill
(S. 1813) calls for. The transportation construction sector supports finalization and passage of
reauthorization by the June 30th expiration date.
To accomplish this goal, CRSI encourages Member companies to weigh in by contacting Congress
from May 29th – June 8. The Bill must pass by June 30:
1)
If you have a Member serving on the Highway and Transit Bill conference committee (chaired
by Senator Boxer), please contact the member’s office urging support for a bill. (See
message points below.) You can view a conferee list here.
2)
Contact your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator urging support for the Conference
Committee to reach agreement on a surface transportation bill. (See message points below.)
To find out who your U.S. Senators are see the Senators-by-State list at
http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm.
To find out who your U.S. Representative is see the House member lookup page at
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/.
Calls to the Washington Office of your Member of Congress are a straightforward way to make
contact. Dial (202) 224-3121 to reach the Capitol Switchboard; ask for your Representative’s or
Senator’s office and you will be connected.
You can also email your Member of Congress through the websites listed above.
MESSAGE POINTS:
 I commend/am grateful that the House and Senate have advanced long-needed
reauthorization of the federal highway program and are now in the Conference stage
 I support and urge you to support an agreement on this important job-saving and job-creating
legislation, and to have it passed by June 30, when the current temporary extension expires
 Without a bill to reauthorize highway and public transportation funding levels as passed by the
Senate in its bill (at minimum) the federal program will be severely compromised in terms of
projects to construct and workers to make the products
 No More Extensions! We need to invest in our transportation infrastructure now
 It is critical that Congress does its job to pass Transportation Reauthorization
2nd Annual Rally for Roads
Members and staff of CRSI participated in the second annual "Rally for Roads" on Tuesday, March
20th, alongside more than a dozen industry partner organizations on the National Mall in Washington,
DC. Approximately 400 employees from the transportation construction industry and companies that
rely on the Nation's surface transportation infrastructure were in attendance to try to impact federal
transportation policies.
Ten leading bipartisan members of Congress including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the chair of the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the chair of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, spoke at the Rally urging Congress to unify and
pass a fully-funded, comprehensive transportation bill.
The Rally for Roads promotes the belief that a multi-year highway bill will stimulate economic growth,
maintain our nation's global competitiveness and above all, create American jobs. You can view the
2012 Rally for Roads video on the CRSI YouTube channel here: http://youtu.be/aCygG7a_W88
88th Annual Conference
CRSI’s Annual Conference held in Washington, D.C. was a huge success in both Member
satisfaction and action. After an informative General Session that included guest speaker
presentations and a legislative panel discussion moderated by Philip Bell, various CRSI staff and
Members made “hill visits” to their respective Congresspersons’ offices in support of passing a fully
funded surface transportation bill.
It was an opportune time to make our opinions heard as the conferees were being selected for the
Highway and Transit Bill Conference between the House of Representatives and Senate. Well done!
Please check the CRSI website for current advocacy materials and industry position statements at:
http://www.crsi.org/index.cfm/transportation/legislative
Now more than ever it is important for the CRSI membership to be active in stating our case for
improving our transportation infrastructure. The transportation infrastructure markets of roads, bridges
and highways uses approximately one third of reinforcing bar produced in the United States. If we as
CRSI members do not tell our story about our product and business to our elected officials,
no one else will do it for us!
For more information contact Barbara Burchett, CRSI Government Relations Consultant at
[email protected], 202. 265. 4335.