Lake County Gazette

U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Dist. 14) took to the House floor this week to call for a more equitable share of transportation funding for suburban communities from the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act, which the House passed on Thursday.

Hultgren recently received a letter from six Illinois county chairmen, asking him to make the push during House debate on the transportation bill.

“This bill dedicates discretionary grant funding to freight and highway projects of national significance,” Hultgren said. “Though this program is of vital importance to projects in all of our districts, there appears to be a bias on how the vast majority of funds have been awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and suburban projects appear to be often ignored. I ask the chairman (Bill Shuster (R-PA) to be mindful of the distribution of such funding levels as it pertains to suburban projects…I would ask that as this bill moves to conference, we work together to find some level of equitable distribution of federal funds to suburban areas.”

Hultgren is a former member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and recently hosted Shuster and Illinois transportation officials at a meeting on the best way to address the state's transportation challenges.

Shuster pledged to heed Hultgren's call for a less-lopsided division of funds. The bill now will be considered by the Senate.