AASHTO Journal, 2 August 2013
After days of debate, both the House and Senate set aside their appropriations bills for Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development this week without passage, leaving the bills to be addressed after the five-week recess that begins this afternoon. The House dropped the measure Wednesday, while the Senate voted down a procedural vote to prevent moving the bill further.
The House’s THUD appropriations bill, H.R. 2610 stood at $44.1 billion, reflecting cuts to levels lower than would result from a potential FY 2014 sequestration. Dozens of amendments were proposed for the bill.
“I am extremely disappointed with the decision to pull the bill from the House calendar today,” said House Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) in a statement. “The prospects for passing this bill in September are bleak at best, given the vote count on passage that was apparent this afternoon. With this action, the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very budget it adopted just three months ago. Thus, I believe that the House has made its choice: sequestration—and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts—must be brought to an end. And, it is also clear that the higher funding levels advocated by the Senate are also simply not achievable in this Congress.”
The Senate had also spent days on its $54 billion THUD appropriations bill, S. 1243, yet a 54-43 roll call on the measure (short of the 60 votes needed to move forward) stalled the Senate from taking action on the bill. Senate Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) told Roll Call that failing to move forward with the bill signaled bigger problems.
“This shows exactly why Washington is not working, why we have not lowered our unemployment rate, why we’re not improving our public safety on highways and on bridges, and are failing to meet our compelling human need in housing for the elderly and the disabled and the disadvantaged,” Mikulski said, as reported by Roll Call.
The THUD appropriations measure would need to be agreed to by September 30 in order to begin with the new fiscal year.