The Dallas Morning News reports that Scott Brown’s election to the Senate is likely to result in a freeze in transportation funding for the next several years, in the opinion of AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley.

AASHTO is the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, a powerful lobbying force for greater federal spending on highways, especially, and rail. Horsley said Brown’s election this month to succeed Sen. Edward Kennedy has prompted a seismic shift in the Capitol.

“The other shoe has finally hit,” said Horsley. “Deficit reduction and concern over debt is almost as powerful a dynamic now as stimulating and job creation has been. There will be another round of jobs creation legislation, but it will be followed shortly by a freeze in spending. It is my view that this will freeze it in its tracks the highway re-authorization bill.”

The federal legislation that authorizes highway spending expired last year, but has been extended by a series of temporary bills while Congress and the administration focused on other priorities. Without any funding changes, the federal gas taxes will fund about $250 billion in spending over a five-year bill. But Democrats in Congress – and a host of outside voices, too – have called for a big expansion of that program.

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