Senators Skirmish on Highway Bill

Timing, scarce funds put pressure on lawmakers

Strong words between the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a senior Republican Thursday morning brought into sharp relief two legislative strategies for a new six-year transportation bill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., called the hearing to discuss how Congress would deal with a $5 billion to $7 billion shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund this August that the Obama administration predicted.

 

On June 17, Boxer announced her support of an administration plan to extend the current highway law, to March 2011, to give Congress time to find the money for the trust fund, and develop a comprehensive bill to overhaul transportation policy and finance surface transportation infrastructure for the next six years. The current six-year spending plan will expire on Sept. 30.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, rejected the idea of an extension and said the Surface Transportation Authorization Act, developed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., provided a ready answer to the problems.

“We need a robust highway bill now. The way to get the job done is to pass a bill now. Urgent! Get it done!” Voinovich said. “What the country needs is to know that within the next five year period, we’re going to make a comprehensive commitment to the infrastructure, including high-speed rail, highways and ports.”

 

Boxer said she agreed to the extension to assure states that there would be a reliable source of money available for infrastructure projects, at existing funding levels. At a time of extreme economic stress, she said there was nothing to be gained by frightening the public with the prospect of another HTF insolvency. Last September, Congress voted to transfer $8 billion to the trust fund from the U.S. general fund.

 

Revenue from the Highway Trust Fund would only pay half of the estimated $450 billion in highway infrastructure and construction that Oberstar’s bill called for, Boxer said.

“The chairman, who I deeply respect and hold in high regard, has decided that it’s his committee’s responsibility to put this out there, and Ways and Means is going to figure out how to pay for it,” Boxer said. “I don’t feel that I can move forward, in this time of fiscal stress and strain, with that type of bill without being able to pay for it.”

 

Boxer said that if she had bipartisan consensus on funding for a new highway bill, she could prepare legislation in a matter of weeks. She vowed that work would begin as soon as Congress had solved the trust fund problem. However, she said she would begin hearings on a highway bill in the fall.

 

The hearing yielded no consensus on sources of money to bolster the Highway Trust Fund, but the choices were few. Boxer favored a transfer of unspent money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., ranking Republican on the committee, advocated the return of $13 billion in interest earned since surplus HTF revenue was transferred to the general fund in 1998 for deficit reduction.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a witness at the hearing, said he was working with the White House Office of Management and Budget to find money to pay for the entire 18 month extension.

 

Voinovich scoffed at the measures, which would only borrow money from one source to fill a hole somewhere else. Instead, Congress should vote an increase in motor fuel taxes, the principal source of HTF revenue. Even in economic hard times, the public would support a tax increase if they could see tangible benefits for their money.

 

The administration’s proposal for an 18-month extension also called for some program changes at the Department of Transportation. Boxer rejected the request, saying that legislation to replenish the trust fund would be a “clean” transfer of money.

Boxer said an HTF bill would be ready for committee consideration on July 20.

 

(Source: Journal of Commerce)