The transportation construction industry and business community are launching an ad campaign on two fronts this summer to keep pressure on Congress and the Trump administration for action in 2019 on a permanent Highway Trust Fund (HTF) fix and a new transportation infrastructure package.
A key campaign component is a social media focused effort aimed at generating grassroots support. It uses "Conversation Cards" targeted at the Twitter followers of dozens of key members of the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees, which have the responsibility for developing the funding mechanisms for surface transportation legislation or an infrastructure package. Twitter followers of these lawmakers can send this message: "Our national transportation infrastructure is severely underfunded, which is crippling our economy and endangering lives. The time for Congress to fix this is now—ask @ [member of Congress] to start work today to get our nation moving in the right direction again."
The effort is complemented by digital and Twitter ads aimed at members of Congress, their staffs and other Washington DC policymakers that spotlight the impacts of traffic congestion on the US economy and highlight how the nation is investing in infrastructure at half the rate of the Space Age nearly 50 years ago. The ads drive the target audiences to an opinion editorial in Politico.
The piece notes the key priorities: "Job #1 is providing a permanent, dedicated, growing, user-fee based HTF [Highway Trust Fund] revenue stream to support the increased transportation investments advocated by President Trump and members of Congress from both parties. Job #2 is ensuring expanded HTF [Highway Trust Fund] resources in a transportation infrastructure package are dedicated to projects that will facilitate long-term regional and national economic growth while creating new jobs."
The campaign is a joint initiative of the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) and US Chamber of Commerce-led Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) coalition. The TCC and ATM ads are running during July.