CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Nov. 9, 2011 – 10:36 p.m.
Funding Difficulties Endanger Highway Bill
By Nathan Hurst, CQ Staff
Prospects for enactment of a full six-year surface transportation reauthorization by this Congress are fading fast, as senators continue to search for a way to pay for just a two-year extension.
Still missing from the Senate bill (
While Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee mostly agreed with the bill’s policy provisions, they made clear that the measure would not advance unless they can come to an agreement on the funding offsets.
“It won’t go anywhere outside of this committee without that $12 billion,” said
The difficulty in finding a method for funding even a two-year bill illustrates the challenge facing House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman
“You conference it,” he said. “And then I win.”
But House aides, as well as lobbyists representing a variety of industries, say work is progressing slowly on identifying enough offsets to pay for a six-year bill, which would cost in excess of $200 billion. House Speaker
Boehner last week floated the idea of funding a transportation infrastructure bill by tying it to measures that would expand domestic oil and gas drilling. The new royalties would supplement the Highway Trust Fund, but Boehner’s plan would increase the sales of leases to drill on public lands and in federal waters and ease some regulations for producers — ideas that are non-starters for many Democrats.
Funding Shortfall
For decades, motor-fuels taxes and the other levies that fund the Highway Trust Fund produced a bounty. With no shortage of money, authorizers only had to figure out how to spend it all. The Highway Trust Fund became a piggy bank for lawmaker-directed earmarks that were usually popular back home.
But vehicles that are more fuel-efficient, as well as high energy costs that discourage driving, have cut into the trust fund. High energy prices and a weak economy have discouraged lawmakers from considering a gas-tax increase, and alternatives such as a levy based on the number of miles driven have been rejected.
In recent years, lawmakers have supplemented the fund with direct appropriations to fund surface transportation programs at authorized levels.
At the Environment Committee markup on Wednesday, Alabama Republican
Funding Difficulties Endanger Highway Bill
But that self-discipline may make it harder to get a six-year bill done before the current extension (PL 112-30) expires March 31.
A longer-term authorization is widely supported by state and local governments, the construction industry and labor unions, who want to know what funding levels will be available so they can plan construction. But even as they continue pressing for a six-year bill, the lobbying interests threw support behind the two-year bill in the Senate, which they view as preferable to continuing the string of short-term extensions.
Mica’s predecessor, former Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., also wanted to pass a six-year highway bill but got no support from the White House or Senate. Mica will want to avoid a similar disappointment, and, if faced with a choice, he may decide that the most pragmatic solution is to accept a two-year bill.
“After criticizing Oberstar and the Democrats for not getting long-term bills done,” one transportation lobbyist said, “the chairman doesn’t want to be left not having anything to show.”