|
House, Senate Take Different Approaches to Transportation Bill
by Leslie Wollack
Lawmakers in the House and Senate took steps last week to extend federal surface transportation programs before the programs expire on September 30, albeit taking two different approaches.
A House panel approved by voice vote a six-year authorization providing $500 billion for federal highway, transit, bridge and rail programs, without specifying how to pay for them. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highway and Transit, chaired by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) will leave the financing to the House Ways and Means Committee, which has scheduled a hearing for this week on how to finance federal transportation programs.
Last week, the Administration announced that the federal Highway Trust Find, financed by federal fuel taxes, will run out of funds by late summer. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said the Administration opposes any increase in the current $18.3 cents per gallon federal fuel tax, which finances federal transportation programs.
In the Senate, the Environment and Public Works Committee acted to extend the current program, known as SAFETEA-LU, for an additional 18 months without enacting any policy changes. Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) promised to use that time to develop a “transformational” bill.
“As we work our way out of this recession, the last thing we want to do is to drastically cut back on necessary transportation priorities,” said Boxer in a statement. “The White House proposal to replenish the Trust Fund until 2011 will keep the recovery and job creation moving forward and give us the necessary time to pass a more comprehensive multi-year transportation authorization bill with stable and reliable funding sources.”
The House bill would nearly double federal spending on surface transportation, authorizing $337 billion for highways, almost $100 billion for transit and an additional $50 million for high speed rail. Although committee members offered several amendments during the House Transportation committee session, all were ultimately withdrawn for a more extensive discussion of the bill next month.
Next week, another House committee, the Committee on Ways and Means, will hold a hearing on how to finance the transportation programs.
The approaching deadline, Congress’ full agenda and the sheer number of committees having jurisdiction over transportation programs make it difficult to see how Congress will be able to meet the September 30 deadline to reach consensus on a new long-term bill.
Last week, while in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of NLC's Board Finance Committee, members of NLC’s Board of Directors discussed authorization of transportation programs and other topics with officials at the White House and the Department of Transportation.
NLC First Vice President Ronald O. Loveridge, and committee members Debbie Quinn, councilmember, Fairhope, Ala., and Joe Davis, alderman, Milwaukee, expressed their support for a new partnership between the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency for livable communities that will coordinate federal programs from those three agencies to help official help create sustainable communities.
In a meeting with Bruce Wolpe, senior advisor for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, NLC Board representatives discussed the importance of health care reform and climate change on local governments. They outlined NLC’s position on health care, calling for health care for all Americans and cost containment. On climate change, the representative reiterated the need to support local government efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the potentially unavoidable effects of climate change.
|