Venable partner Jim Burnley was quoted in a May 16, 2016 Bloomberg BNA article on a proposal by former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that Congress should pass a multibillion dollar infrastructure stimulus package funded by increased gas taxes. LaHood made the suggestion at an Infrastructure Week event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Burnley called LaHood's proposal "disconnected from political reality" adding that there is not "enough political support for the kind of stimulus package LaHood envisions." He said "that even if the gas tax were doubled, it wouldn't close the shortfall between available funding in the [Highway Trust Fund] and national needs." Instead, Burnley suggested that the federal government work with state officials to adopt an "all of the above" approach instead of focusing only on increased fuel taxes. "If we are narrow-minded in our approach to this issue and we just talk about gas taxes and diesel taxes, we simply won't get there," he said.