CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Feb. 28, 2012 – 10:45 p.m.
Short-Term Highway Bill in Doubt
By Richard E. Cohen and Nathan Hurst, CQ Staff
House Republican leaders are delaying action on a downsized multi-year surface transportation bill as intraparty resistance persists, even after Speaker
House leaders will not bring to the floor next week a two-year extension of transportation programs as had been expected, leaving the fate of the House effort to reauthorize surface transportation programs in doubt.
But Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman
Republican leaders are facing opposition from freshmen and conservatives in their conference against even the short-term package, which — like Boehner’s longer-term measure — would link a reauthorization of surface transportation programs to an expansion of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and off the U.S. coast and approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, provisions that the House passed Feb. 16 in a separate bill (
Conservative House Republicans are balking at the size, scope and price of the more limited version of an authorization bill that has long won support in Congress.
The delays in the House come as the Senate continues to debate, though not yet vote, on its two-year, $109 billion authorization (
The stalled effort is an embarrassment for Boehner, who proudly unveiled last fall the outlines of the proposal and left the details to Mica’s committee. At the time, Boehner highlighted the bill’s lack of earmarks, something Mica has said only made it more difficult to pass.
Mica’s Frustration
The sidelining of the bill has sparked significant second-guessing and finger-pointing between House leaders and Mica, who complained Tuesday about the leadership’s plan to shorten the length and scope of the five-year transportation version he announced Jan. 31. “The leadership is trying to find the votes. I have been trying to find the best policy,” Mica said. “You have to mesh the two.”
Mica has pushed for months for a reauthorization bill that extends transportation programs for more than two years. He assailed what he said was the GOP leadership’s strategy of waiting until after the fall elections to push for a longer-term reauthorization more to the majority’s liking.
In a speech Tuesday before the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Mica said GOP leaders and stakeholders who make such assertions are “smoking the funny weed.” He contends federal spending will be even tighter at year’s end.
The chairman also rebutted assertions by House Republican leaders that his committee was to blame for the need to abandon the long-term bill. Mica said the overriding factor behind the bill’s demise was the leadership’s inability to rally enough House Republicans, many of them conservatives and rebellious freshmen, behind the measure.
“Most members don’t understand the complexity of transportation funding, and you’ve got to remember, on our side we’ve got about 90 new members,” Mica said. “And it does take a while to understand this.”
Short-Term Highway Bill in Doubt
Boehner, R-Ohio, and other House Republican leaders set aside the Speaker’s five-year, $260 billion surface transportation bill (
House Republicans say they have returned to the drawing board to find new ways to pay for their shorter-term bill.
“We’ve identified a problem, and are working on a range of possible fixes,” said a GOP leadership aide. “The end result will be the same: a fight we can and will win with Washington Democrats over rising gas prices and jobs.”
A Difficult Path
The trajectory of the bill has been fraught from the beginning. In mid-November, Mica and his staff were unable to find ways to offset a $40 billion funding gap for a five-year bill by tying the legislation to revenue from expanded oil and gas drilling.
Both the longer- and shorter-term bills have been criticized from the left and right, with Democrats and moderate Republicans railing against proposed reductions in mass transit spending, which depends on a 20 percent set-aside from the Highway Trust Fund for public transportation. Fiscal hawks also have voiced concern about the cost of the bill.
GOP aides said last week that by shortening the duration of the bill to between 18 and 30 months, keeping intact the Mass Transit Account and lowering overall costs, they hoped to garner more Republican votes.
But Mica said Tuesday he met with Boehner late Monday and they discussed “a host of options.” He said he stressed his preference for retaining “the reform provisions” regarding mass transit funding. “I’m willing to work with the transit people to pacify both sides,” he said.
Some House Republicans welcomed the initial reports of the changes. “It’s 80 percent there,” said
LaTourette — a close Boehner ally who strongly criticized Mica’s proposal— defended Boehner’s effort to link transportation funding to energy production as well as his willingness to allow the Transportation Committee to write the details.
“That caused some angst” in the Republican Conference, he said. “But committees serve a purpose, even though sometimes you get things that people aren’t crazy about.”
Some conservatives said they back efforts to narrow the scope of the bill. “They are moving in the right direction . . . toward less spending,” said Rep.
Still, other Republicans agree with Mica that a long-term reauthorization is needed. “A shorter bill doesn’t make sense to me,” nor to local transportation officials, said
Short-Term Highway Bill in Doubt
Some lawmakers are also dissatisfied about how the measure affects their districts. Rep.
The intraparty dispute over the reauthorization has dampened Boehner’s efforts to intensify the GOP’s rhetorical focus on rising gasoline prices and the nation’s energy policy.
For their part, Democrats have been dismissive of the House GOP’s rhetoric and initial proposal.
House Majority Whip
But, he added, “there is a stark difference” with the House GOP initiative. “The transportation highway authorizations, short-term or long-term, have invariably been bipartisan bills. This is not.”