'Keep Freeways Free' Legislation Introduced

"US Representative Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) last week introduced HR 1071, the Keeping America's Freeways Free Act, which is designed to prohibit any new efforts to collect tolls on an interstate.

Thompson succeeded Representative John Peterson (R), one of the staunchest opponents of tolling in Congress. Thompson vowed to keep up the federal pressure against efforts to allow a foreign corporation to toll Interstate 80, a route that cuts across the Keystone State."

[Correspondent's note: Last year, Peterson introduced H.R. 3510 "to prohibit the imposition and collection of tolls on certain highways constructed using Federal funds". The PA legislature passed Act 44 in July 2007 as an alternative to leasing the PA Turnpike. It was signed into law by Gov. Rendell. Act 44 includes converting I-80 to a tolled facility.]

"US Representative Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas) joined as an original co-sponsor of the freeway tolling ban. It mirrors legislation introduced in the previous Congress by US Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas)."