AASHTO Journal, 10 October 2014
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee that produced a long-term highway authorization bill this year, is pressing House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) to help quickly produce revenue options that lawmakers from both chambers can embrace.
Boxer, in an Oct. 9 letter to Camp that is posted on EPW’s majority web site, said she had hand-delivered to Camp’s office in September a list of possible revenue measures Congress could use for the trust fund “but I have not yet received any feedback from you.” She also sent the letter to Sander Levin (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on that House tax-writing panel.
Camp previously proposed harvesting a multiyear tax windfall from overhauling corporate taxes to help fund highway and transit programs, similar in some ways to the administration’s plan. And last July it was Camp’s committee that came up with the smaller revenue ideas Congress used to cover $10.8 billion in Highway Trust Fund program costs through May 2015. A multiyear authorization bill would require lawmakers to come up with tens of billions.
House Republicans have mainly indicated they expect to consider highway/transit funding next year in the new Congress, when they might also have a GOP Senate majority to work with and as the next trust fund authorization deadline approaches in May.
Boxer and some Senate allies have tried to maintain pressure to act later this year in the lame duck session after the November elections. To do that, other Senate committees would need to write the transit and safety portions of a long-term bill, the House would need to produce its own version and both chambers would need to decide on their revenue choices.
However, Boxer told Camp, “the longer we wait to find a long-term funding solution for our critical infrastructure the worse it will be … We cannot afford to wait for action until the deadline which falls at the beginning of the critical summer construction season, or to kick the can down the road any longer.”
Camp is leaving Congress after this term, so the Ways and Means gavel will go to someone else come January. But Boxer made clear she hopes to reach an agreement with him before he leaves office. “There are many reasonable ways to continue a self-funded transportation program … I look forward to working with you to find a long-term, bipartisan solution for the Highway Trust Fund this year,” she wrote.
She pointed to economic and safety effects as she urged Camp to help craft “a sustainable funding solution” to the persistent shortfall in highway and transit excise tax revenue compared with the program spending. “Our economy depends on safe and efficient transportation systems, and yet our roads and bridges are falling apart,” Boxer said. “Our states, our cities, our drivers, our workers – everyone is counting on us to maintain and improve our highways, bridges and transit systems over the long haul.”