And supplies all aimed at assad andbashaar al countering russia in the region. House lawmakers this week are spending hours debating and voting on Infrastructure Spending in this country with a six your bill for funding the nations transportation system. We turn to you this morning to tell us what its like in your community. If you live in the Eastern Central part of the country mountain pacific you can also join the conversation on twitter. Facebook. Com cspan. What is the condition of infrastructure in your community . Take a look at the debate on the house floor yesterday. The top democrat in the House Transportation Committee talks about how there is not Adequate Funding in this secure bill. The biggest and most glaring omission by the rules committee is any attempt of not allowing any attempt by this house to fund the bill. Thats pretty extraordinary. We probably dont have three years of pretend funding in the bill because of the offsets in the budget deal. I dont know what is left. It sure as heck is nowhere near six years of funding and at not six years of funding at a more robust level which is necessary. Even if we funded this bill for six years, at the end of that come our infrastructure will be more deteriorated than it is today. Its deteriorating more quickly than we are investing. Thats a problem. We need to increase investment and have not raise the federal gas tax since 1993. Thats a user fee created by president Dwight David Eisenhower and raised again by Ronald Reagan and then finally, by bill clinton. Its a bipartisan idea. User fee, Fund Infrastructure for transportation with a user fee. The u. S. Chamber of commerce supports an increase in the user fee. The American Trucking association supports the increase. Where virtually being banged by Interest Groups representing consumers and commercial users of the system. Do something. Vote on something. I offered a simple amendment. Lets index the existing gas tax so we dont lose more ground. If we did that, gas would go up 1. 7 cents per gallon next year. I think consumers would not be outraged. That weld be pleased would fill in the potholes and doing away with the detours around bridges that are closed. That was Peter Defazio yesterday talking about the bill that does not raise the gas tax. Take a look at the federal gas tax. 18. 4 cents per gallon. 24 point four cents and no increase in taxes since 1993. The gas tax would be . 29 per gallon if it had gone up consistently. This is according to the congressional budget office. Lets show you what rob woodall had to say yesterday. The federal role the government has in local Infrastructure Projects. [video clip] i represent a very conservative area in the great state of georgia. We dont much care for taxes of any kind. Taking care of one another but we feel like we do it better ourselves some folks from far away. My local jurisdiction rejected federal gas taxes, rejected a 200 millions, dollars bonding initiative, to bill rhodes locally because they believe they would get it done. Users are paying for those roads. There is not a conservative in this country i would posit that is unwilling to pay for what it is that they use. Its our job to go sell that to folks that if you use it, you need to pay for it and theres no shame in that. Its a constitutional responsibility we have in this body and one we should be proud to stand up and support. I would say to my friends on the other side of the aisle that we will have to have discussions in this legislation. My folks back home dont believe that if they send one dollar to washington that they will get one dollar worth of roads back in return. They downed, they believe 10 will come up here and tempered sample come up there and it will be raised on Regulatory Compliance and wasted on silly federal mandate and they will get . 50 per road for a dollars worth of taxes. I dont think they are wrong about that. I think there is a lot of wisdom in that suspicion. Debate yesterday in washington as house Lawmakers Debate and vote on a very large Infrastructure Spending bill. Six years, they say they have funding in it for three years and will have to come up with funding for the rest of it. The senate has their own version of this legislation and the two sides have to come together and end something to the president for his signature. Because of that debate in washington, we want to turn to you to tell us what is the condition of the roads and bridges where you live. What is it like . We divided the lines regionally this morning the phone lines are open so start tiling in. We have a transportation reporter joining us on the phone this morning. Lets begin with this debate over the gas tax. Countrythe need in this for more funding and that is why people are talking about raising the gas tax . Talk about the need across the country. What is the state of our transportation system. Guest the problem that lawmakers have been facing for the past 10 years is that the about 34ly brings in billion per year at its current rate. It has not been raised since 1993, as you mentioned. The federal government typically spends about 60 billion per year and transportation projects. A lot of folks a that is barely enough to maintain the system we have, not nearly enough to make the improvements and keep up with growth in metro areas and those sort of things. They are looking at a shortfall of about 16 billion they have to address each year to just maintain the current level of spending. Last time, thats the they pass the highway bill that lasted longer than two years, they have been patching the system and turning to other areas of the federal budget and this bill on the floor now does some of that thats what the debate about the gas tax was about. The transportation advocates have been saying that the easiest way to close that shortfall for good is to raise the gas tax indexed to inflation, about . 30 per gallon. But that has been a nonstarter in congress for a long time. There was some belief that there was some momentum in the beginning of the year when gas prices dipped to lowes that had not in semen tenures but Republican Leaders said they were not in favor of it. Voting on 81are amendments yesterday on the highway bill, they refused to allow a vote on a proposal to increase the gas tax by . 15. Democrats were unhappy about that because they did allow a vote on whats called a sense of Congress Amendment that was proposing a nonbinding resolution in favor of reducing the gas tax through devolution to about four cents per gallon and turning responsibility for most transportation projects over to state and local governments. Was defeated but a lot of democrats were not happy that that got a vote but proposal to increase the gas tax did not get a vote. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] the american host the American Society of Civil Engineers is given the United States infrastructure low grades in 2013. How does this bill address the need for bridges and roads repair across the country . Guest supporters of the bill say this would provide state and local governments more certainty. You hear that a lot in these funding debates. Ist has been happening congress is coming up on transportation deadlines and passing very short extensions. This deadline they are facing now on november 20 was the result of a threeweek bill that was passed for the last deadline on october 29. That was set up by a threemonth bill passed in july. A lot of state and local governments say they cannot even begin to contemplate these longer projects that are needed to make those improvements because they dont have any certainty of the funding available from the federal government. The backers of this bill say its not a perfect bill. Its not six years of funding but theyve got three years of guaranteed funding and it authorizes the collection of the gas tax at its current rate for six years and it would provide more certainty to states than they have had a long time. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] host give us a couple of the big amendments. What else was offered yesterday . Forward, final vote, and then what happens . Guest there were several amendments related to trucking. There was an amendment to allow states to decide if they wanted to have heavier trucks on the roads. There is currently an increase with,000 pounds on trucks five axles and there was a proposal to allow states to go up to 91,000 pounds if they moved to six axles and that proposal was defeated. There were several amendments related to transit funding. There were a host of amendments last night that were debated related to the controversial Export Import Bank which is a separate issue that has been included in this highway bill. Like they should be able to get to a final vote today, hopefully. The idea is that they can get this bill out and get to a conference with the senate. Lawmakers in both parties have said they anticipate that once they get to a conference, they should be able to bridge their differences because the senate bill is similar in its approach and his three years of guaranteed funding as well. They would have to get a bill to the president by november 20 to prevent an interruption in transportation funding. Host we appreciate your input. We turn to you this morning. Where you live . What is the condition of infrastructure in . Marias in boulder, colorado, good morning, go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I appreciate the subject today. Colorado,ve seen in right after the 815 alien dollar 850 billion financial spending plan to jolt the economy host the stimulus bill . Caller yes, thank you. Coloradobeneficial for and california. Thatsited california after as far as bridge construction and roads. Enough asy was not paul krugman and other economists have said have predicted. We saw some improvement. We had a big flood here a couple of years ago. Came through and it was devastated around boulder, colorado. They cleaned it up pretty. Uickly money toobably enough help not only the bridges but around the state, highways and things like that. Listening to your introduction iday and the comments before, guess we just need to spend more money, have more Infrastructure Spending because it is falling apart. Host would you agree to raising the gas tax . Absolutely, i have been an agreement with that for years. Caller that would be key, absolutely key. We bought guess the other day at 1. 99 per gallon. More just toised help the infrastructure, its falling apart, and i believe thats true. Thank you for taking my call. Host take a look at this map put together by the tax foundation. How high our guest taxes in your state . This is from july, 2015. This is the cents per gallon. ,n colorado, the state gas tax taxes and fees on gasoline, the state is . 22 per gallon. Huntington, West Virginia, good morning. Whats it like in West Virginia . Highways especially our interstates are gerrymandered just like congress. Host what do you mean . We dont have the same interstate highway. [indiscernible] the price of the cost of living increases and we dont keep up with it. That means our cities or counties have to make up the difference. In West Virginia, what you see is highwayrstate coverage where they are attempting to spread out a few dollars and keep up with the cost of living. Its not working. You can see the deteriorating infrastructure. When you look at the state road and the county roads, they are full of potholes. They are still resurfacing. They cant even keep up with that. Host do you have told in West Virginia . Caller yes. Host do you agree with them . Caller what did you just say . Host do you agree with paying a toll to get on a highway . Caller no, i would not do that. I would raise the gas tax. [indiscernible] the state gas tax and West Virginia for your stay is . 34. It looks like you are number 12 for the gas tax. Thats in cents per gallon. We will go to baltimore, good morning. Caller hello there. Thank you for cspan. You look mighty pretty this morning. Host thank you. Caller in baltimore, the highways are in very good condition. The interstate is excellent. Fact thatuse of the they violated the original eisenhower law and put tolls on most of the roads. Connector intercounty that is charging outrageous amounts of money. As far as the infrastructure goes, i would say its from excellent, and im an engineer, excellent to superior. E of civil the afc engineers says there is selfinterest. They can sure use the business. Host you think its excellent where you live, why is that . Do you give credit to your state legislature or the governor . Why is it . Caller absolutely. Goods been pretty regardless of whether we had a democrat or republican administration. When mostly have a democratic administration. We now have a republican governor. Closelyn is fairly paid. Likeorkbarrel projects putting new curbs in front of my [indiscernible] and tolerable. I worked with congress for many years. I am 88 years old. It used to be the way you set of congress was 80 of the laws would be general in spending. Of anuld go to a sort allotment so the congressmen could come back and say they got something some road bill passed that in a fitted their community. The final 10 was just plain pork. That has changed. 50 oks like now its more 40 10 with 40 being the port. Host thank you, georgia is next. Caller i just have a comment i would like to make. The infrastructure in georgia is not good. There is a bridge i cross every and there are broken pieces of concrete as you get on the bridge on both sides. That has been that way for a long time. My comment is it appears in rgia, i drive from atlanta from dalton to atlanta a lot and they are spending all the money on the exits. They are building these lavish exits to get on and off of the interstate but there is no work going on between the exit. For the bridge youre talking about, have you seen news reports about other people being concerned . You see bridges across the uc news reports of bridges falling and minnesota a few years ago. Caller this would be on a state road. It has a chunk of concrete missing. They come and patch it and then it wears off again and the same hole is there. It has been that way for several years now. I dont know what its like underneath. I have not seen any reports in the newspaper about it, just wordofmouth, citizens talking about it. That was my comments. Host great falls, montana, good morning. Caller good morning. Infrastructure here in this state is absolutely excellent. I think they do a pretty good job of spending the money. What i would like to see happen is the federal government totally get out of the infrastructure business in these states and let the states handle the money placing the blame back on the states when they dont handle it correctly. When how do you do that you have an interstate system . Caller absolutely, its interstate but it goes through that state. As soon as the money gets to the federal level, just like anything else, it gets mishandled to a certain percentage like the gentleman was saying and its less effective. Moste that money the effective way, the states could handle that. The state can take care of that, just send the money back to the states and get the federal government out of it and you Infrastructure Projects started and finished on time, under budget, and better rewards for the taxpayers. Host do you believe the argument of some that say you have to invest in our nations infrastructure because its about Global Competitiveness . Companies dont want to come and have their headquarters in the United States because the infrastructure around them is falling apart. Caller to a certain point, but the freemarket enterprise will also dictate a lot of that. Thatridiculous to say these Democratic Candidates saying we have to invest in infrastructure right now or the world will fall apart. I dont buy that argument. As a rallying cry for these people who want to get elected. I dont buy that. The free market will dictate a lot of this. The states are way better at handling it. Host what do you think of the way republicans put this bill together . Sayingrd Peter Defazio there is funding in here for maybe three years. It is not think it gets done for three years, its a sixyear bill. Later on, they have to find ways to fund the rest of it for the remaining years. Caller absolutely, if we get a republican in office in the presidency, they will find the money. If we get a democrat, there will be no money and they will have to borrow more and our taxes will go up and our debt will go up. I think they can find the money of we get a responsible president in there that can cut back on these wasteful spending that this president has enacted. Host what about raising the gas tax . Caller thats a tough one. When you are out here in a state like montana, you have to drive lots of miles to get anything done. Burdens like an unfair to raise the gas tax. Thats a tough question. It might need to be raised a little bit. Philadelphia, what do you think . Things are going pretty well. At the street level. Where is the help . People want the federal government out of the way but wheres the help at . Wheres rand paul . What is going on out here . There should be a truthful backlash. Host we are getting your thoughts this mooring on the condition of infrastructure where you live. Are spending the week debating a multiyear infrastructure bill. We turn to you to let washington know what its like where you live in what you want them to do when it comes to transportation policy. Here are the headlines running for the ways and means chairmanship and got it yesterday from the gop Steering Committee. The leadership awarded him that position. The Steering Committee has the power to award gavels.