AASHTO Journal, 10 October 2014
House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) told Arkansas officials that he wants to craft a new highway and transit authorization bill that would run five or six years.
He made the remarks, reports John Lovett of the Times-Record newspaper in Fort Smith, while visiting the Western Arkansas Regional Inter-modal Transportation Authority with Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a member of the Appropriations Committee. See more at http://swtimes.com/business/shuster-fort-smith-transportation-has-tremendous-opportunity#sthash.GwsiLC9p.dpuf
“We have challenges in Washington trying to figure out the funding streams to make sure the Highway Trust Fund is solvent,” Shuster told the group. “It’s my goal to pass a bill that is five to six years long,” he said, adding a bill that long would give local authorities the “kind of certainty” they need to plan infrastructure projects.
The lawmaker has toured transportation facilities in various states, gathering information on infrastructure needs as his committee works on a wide range of issues involving waterway, air and rail legislation as well as a highway/transit bill. He toured Oklahoma’s Port of Muskogee following his Arkansas stop.
Shuster noted that the current “patch” Congress passed in July carries those surface transportation programs to the end of May.
To get a long-term bill, he said lawmakers need to agree on the revenue options they would use to shore up the trust fund, and those funding choices would determine whether the next highway/transit bill covers five or six years of spending.
“We’ve got to figure out the funding,” said Shuster. “There are a number of different options on the table” for the Highway Trust fund, he said, “and it’s probably going to be a combination of them all.”
Shuster’s remarks also come as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is saying Congress and President Obama could find common ground to pass legislation on tax reform and a major highway bill. And House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who could head the revenue focused Ways and Means Committee in the next Congress, has been discussing ways to pair tax rate cuts with infrastructure funding.