First Senate Committee Clears 2-Year Bill; 3 More Approvals Necessary

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, in a unanimous 18-0 vote Wednesday morning, approved a two-year reauthorization of federal highway programs at current funding levels plus inflation. The bill now moves to the Senate floor calendar, where it will wait for three other committees to approve revenue, transit, and safety components that will eventually be merged into one piece of legislation.John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, commended the committee for supporting the principle that existing levels of highway investment should be preserved.

“We agree with the objectives outlined in the MAP-21 legislation to help to continue to ensure accountability and stewardship of federal surface transportation investments, improve the efficiency of the regulatory review process for transportation improvements, and leverage private-sector resources through an expanded TIFIA program,” Horsley said.

Floor consideration of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, S 1813, now depends on the Senate Finance Committee finding $12 billion in offsets to supplement projected Highway Trust Fund revenue. The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee must pass the transit section of the legislation. And the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee must approve safety provisions.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana and also a member of the Senate EPW Committee, said during Wednesday’s markup that his committee has yet to identify where the $12 billion will come from to fully pay for the transportation bill, but will ensure it happens.

“I pledge to this committee that we will, one way or another, hook or crook, find the resources on a bipartisan basis to pay for this bill,” Baucus said.

Horsley urged that after more than two years of short-term extensions and with an economy desperate for an immediate boost, Finance Committee action on the multiyear surface transportation reauthorization bill should occur as soon as possible to ensure its costs are covered and the legislation can proceed to a debate on the Senate floor.

“With so many jobs on the line, including the current funding levels plus inflation is a key step in starting to address our nation’s surface transportation needs,” Horsley said. “We fully recognize that money alone will not deliver the transportation network our nation requires, and that is why we strongly support program reforms. We also believe that failing to supplement current Highway Trust Fund revenues would lead to a more than 30% cut in every state’s federal highway and public transportation funds.”

During today’s 75-minute-long markup, the committee adopted en bloc 18 amendments (text of all except manager’s amendment at 1.usa.gov/S1813enbloc) that had been agreed to in advance by Senate EPW Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-California, and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma and the committee’s ranking minority member. Although several senators spoke about other amendments they had drafted that did not gain Boxer and Inhofe’s approval, none requested a vote in deference to the leaders’ request not to debate further changes to the 600-page bill’s language.

The adopted amendments:

• Manager’s amendment making technical changes to the bill’s language (Boxer #1 as modified; text prior to modification at 1.usa.gov/S1813managers; modifications on Page 2 at 1.usa.gov/S1813enbloc)
• NFP flexibility for rural roads (Barasso #2)
• Limiting the number of performance measures (Barasso #4)
• CMAQ accountability study (Boozman #1)
• FHWA to FTA flex used to enhance level of service (highway funds eligible for transit use) (Cardin #4)
• Clarify off-road diesel PM2.5 rules and funding (Carper #3)
• “Consult” not “cooperate/coordinate” with MPOs (Crapo #2)
• Grandfathers statewide policy plans for four years (Crapo #3)
• Allowing freight rail improvement within five miles of Mexican/Canadian borders (Gillibrand #1)
• State comment process on DOT standards for NHPP (Johanns #2)
• Require USDOT to give tech support to states for data modeling (Johanns #3)
• Narrow scope of fines in § 2210 (Johanns #5)
• Require MPO alternate scenarios to be fiscally constrained (Merkley #3)
• Increase emergency funding federal share to 100% in certain circumstances (Sanders #1)
• Seeking USDOT report on potential electric car charging network (Sanders #3)
• Define border roads as within 10 miles of border (Udall #1)
• Use of crash rate as a safety analysis/planning factor (Udall #2)
• Eligibility for alternate roads along a corridor when more cost effective than improving primary route (Udall #3)

“The bill before us is completely bipartisan, and therefore nobody will think it is perfect, but it is a very strong commitment to our transportation system and to the health of our businesses, workers, and communities who depend on it,” Boxer said during prepared opening remarks. “This bill is a reform bill — it consolidates 90 programs into 30. While it continues the current level of funding plus inflation, which protects 1.8 million jobs, according to the Transportation Department, it also will create up to 1 million more jobs through leveraging in the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program.”

Inhofe said during his opening remarks that he will work with Baucus to gain Republican support for coming up with the $12 billion needed to advance the legislation.

“The only way this bill will move forward is if it is fiscally responsible and does not add to the deficit,” Inhofe said. “The guiding principal behind this bill was to provide states with more flexibility while ensuring that a national focus is maintained. We also wanted to make sure taxpayers get the most for their money. To that end, the bill includes a limited number of performance measures that will focus the program more on real world outcomes rather than on inputs and bureaucratic processes.”

Expediting project delivery is one critical piece of the bill, Inhofe said. The legislation would streamline areas of the National Environmental Policy Act process through creating more categorical exclusions; allowing for consolidation of NEPA documents, and establishing real deadlines that require federal agencies to make decisions in a consistent and timely nature.

Regarding the Transportation Enhancements program, which several senators have attempted to eliminate during recent floor debates on appropriations measures and transportation extensions, Inhofe said his preference was to get rid of the program, but he compromised with Boxer. The bill approved by committee Wednesday would expand the project types eligible for Transportation Enhancements funding including adding stormwater mitigation, wetlands mitigation, historic preservation, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, and Endangered Species Act mitigation.

The last multiyear surface transportation authorization law known as “SAFETEA-LU” expired in September 2009 and has been temporarily extended eight times by Congress. The current extension will lapse March 31.

A four-page summary of the bill is available at 1.usa.gov/SEPWC4, the full text of the 600-page measure as introduced (not including the approved amendments) is available at 1.usa.gov/SEPWC600, and a video of the markup is available at 1.usa.gov/SEPWC110911video.