Rural Bridges are Essential to Commerce and Communities
In the current highway bill, states are required to spend a minimum of 15 percent of the federal funds they receive on "off-system" or local bridges. Some in Washington are pushing to eliminate this program in the next highway bill.
In the last five years, Missouri has received about $20 million per year to fix bridges. That dedicated federal funding is necessary to repair and rehabilitate bridges that are not safe.
I've heard from every county in Northwest Missouri, and the sentiment remains the same: we need that money to continue fixing bridges across the Sixth District and there is still much work to be done.
Often times a rural bridge is the sole transportation route for school buses, emergency responders, senior citizens, and farmers. Millions of Americans rely on them on a daily basis.
In Missouri, there are currently more than 13,000 off-system bridges, with 1,700 labeled as functionally obsolete and 2,500 as structurally deficient. These bridges are unable to properly accommodate traffic because of poor design, insufficient width or because of their poor structural condition.
Washington is willing to spend hundreds of billions on bail outs for Wall Street and the auto industry, but then it tries to short change our rural communities. It's painfully obvious to me that the bureaucrats in Washington have their priorities backward.
That's why I will continue to fight in Congress to ensure Northwest Missouri gets the funding it needs to maintain, fix and restore our bridges.
Sincerely,
