CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Feb. 6, 2012 – 10:43 p.m.
Hatch Aims at Highway Bill Offsets
By Nathan Hurst, CQ Staff
Senate Finance Chairman
One day before Finance is scheduled to mark up the bill, the panel’s top Republican filed amendments to strip out most of the spending offsets offered by Baucus. The proposals by Utah Republican
Hatch’s amendments threaten to complicate plans by Majority Leader
That was still short of the more than $12.2 billion that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be needed to close the gap between the legislation’s cost and the resources available in the Highway Trust Fund. Committee aides said Baucus was working on other spending offsets to cover the remaining $2.6 billion that would be ready in advance of the markup.
The Hatch amendment, though, would eliminate all but one of the six offsets that Baucus unveiled late last week, retaining only a $3 billion transfer from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund to the Highway Trust Fund.
Instead, Hatch would add the drilling provision included in a House bill (
He also would tack on language (
In contrast to the partisan fights in committee last week over the House bill, Senate leaders were hoping to proceed smoothly on a smaller, more focused proposal that enjoyed bipartisan support. Still, Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee have said all along that their support for the surface transportation measure on the floor was contingent on bipartisan agreement on the financing package.
An alert sent Monday by the conservative group Heritage Action for America may also lead some Senate Republicans to have second thoughts about the highway bill. The group said that by “continuing to fund programs above dedicated revenue sources” the Senate bill will “inevitably lead to revenue increases . . . or bailouts.”
Other offsets proposed by Baucus include dedicating for the highway fund the taxes on “gas guzzler” cars that do not meet fuel efficiency standards, revoking the passports of tax scofflaws to force them to pay up and diverting imported vehicle tariffs to the Highway Trust Fund.
Another Baucus offset has encountered resistance from Sen.
Preventing paper manufacturers from taking the tax credit would generate an estimated $2.79 billion over a decade, but American Forest and Paper Association President Donna Harman called the idea a “retroactive tax increase” and “bad tax policy.”
Other amendments filed with the Finance Committee include proposals by Massachusetts Democrat
Hatch Aims at Highway Bill Offsets
Gas Prices
As hopes for a bipartisan Senate highway financing plan dimmed, House Speaker
In a news release Monday, Boehner’s office touted the House bill as a tool to “help address rising gas prices” by removing “government barriers to American energy production.” Previously, he has argued that provisions to streamline environmental approvals, eliminate duplicative and wasteful programs and expand oil and gas drilling would create jobs.
Supporters have often made the case that expanded oil and natural gas drilling could help blunt the cost of gasoline at the pump, although environmentalists and energy analysts say it would have virtually no short-term effect on prices and a small long-term effect. A 2009 report by the Energy Information Administration said that lifting restrictions on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf would decrease gasoline prices by only 3 cents to 5 cents a gallon — and not until 2030.
Kathryn A. Wolfe contributed to this story.