AASHTO Journal, 11 September 2015
With Congress back in session after Labor Day, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee quickly moved toward a mid-September markup of a long-term highway, transit and rail measure, trying to advance legislation ahead of an Oct. 29 expiration of the Highway Trust Fund.
Chairman Bill Shuster was reportedly meeting with committee members to discuss a markup session that some reports said could be on Sept. 17. Meanwhile, legislators and staffers were finishing up the committee draft before making it public.
Shuster told reporters on Sept. 11 there would be no markup in the coming week but that he still looked for one in late September or early October.
The Washington Examiner reported that Shuster, R-Pa., said Congress may need to pass a short-term extension of the trust fund to give the House more time to negotiate a final bill between the Senate-passed version and the one the House will consider.
Congress is working on infrastructure under the dome as well.He said a short-term extension would be needed for legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration whose program authority is set to expire Sept. 30, “and probably on highway,” the Examiner reported.
Jim Tymon, chief operating officer for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, told Transportation TV the House would be making “great progress” to pass its own bill in October but that negotiating a final version with the Senate could take longer. (See that TTV report in this week’s Journal.) LINK
Tymon said state departments of transportation and AASHTO want to see a final long-term bill sent to President Obama for his signature by the end of December, so that transportation policy and funding is not pushed into a presidential election year when Congress is less likely to tackle major legislation.
A recently updated “trust fund ticker” calculation by the U.S. Department of Transportation said the additional revenue Congress approved in July, when it extended the trust fund’s authority to Oct. 29, would be enough to keep the trust fund solvent through next June absent new action by Congress.
But Politico reported that USDOT sources said the trust fund balances would still fall close to a safe cushion level as soon as this November, although the department did not anticipate it will need to impose cash management restrictions on state DOTs or transit agencies.
The Senate’s bill would reauthorize highway and transit programs for six years, but senators could only come up with three years’ worth of additional revenue for the trust fund. The rail section of that bill reauthorizes spending for Amtrak and other rail programs for four years.
House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has said he wants to pass some form of repatriation tax change on foreign earnings of U.S. corporations that are brought back into this country, and use the revenue to fund a lengthy highway bill. But Politico reported Sept. 10 Ryan said in an interview “it’s unclear” if he’ll offer international tax reform this fall.
Ryan also told the newspaper: “We’re trying to see if we can put together a package of reforms to keep jobs here, get some economic growth and see if we can be a part of the solution to the Highway Trust Fund.”
While Congress was making plans on how to advance the legislation, a coalition of 28 national agricultural groups sent a letter to House members to “strongly urge passage of multi-year surface transportation legislation that would provide adequate funding and greater certainty for transportation infrastructure projects.”
The farm groups said although agriculture uses all forms of transportation, “trucks move almost all agricultural commodities from the field to the warehouse and also transport 64 percent of grains and oilseeds from warehouse to end user.”
They continued: “This adds up to approximately 40 million semi-trailer loads each year for grains and oilseeds alone. The diversity of American agriculture means that many agricultural products are heavily reliant upon truck transportation, such as livestock and poultry, fruit and vegetables, fiber and numerous other high-value commodities.”
The coalition letter also said a large part of the consumer cost of food “is directly attributable to the cost of transportation throughout the food supply chain. Strong infrastructure, such as highways and bridges, are hugely important in keeping U.S. agriculture competitive and consumer food costs down.”
Those groups also stressed a looming yearend rail regulatory deadline that can affect their supply chains, and urged Congress to change it. That is a requirement that railroads activate collision avoidance “positive train control” systems before Jan. 1, 2016, or face potentially heavy fines from the Federal Railroad Administration.
“Several railroads have indicated that they may be unable to move important crop inputs such as anhydrous ammonia [for fertilizer] on lines that do not have PTC installed,” the farm groups wrote. “In addition, one railroad has indicated that it is considering shutting down rail lines that are required to have PTC installed because it is unable to meet the deadline for PTC implementation. This development could threaten delivery not only of fertilizers and other inputs but other traffic on those lines as well.”
That letter was just the latest in a series of efforts in recent weeks by various industry groups and state or federal officials to keep Congress focused on the need to pass a long-term bill.
Separately, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association issued a new report on the impact of transportation infrastructure construction on the U.S. economy and how it affects each state in terms of employment, tax revenue, safety and other measures. (See story in this week’s Nation section.)
And U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx joined with Teamsters President James Hoffa and Haley Barbour, who was Mississippi’s governor when Hurricane Katrina hit and is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, in a National Press Club appearance to press for more infrastructure investment.
“We should be focused on transportation infrastructure, not just for the construction jobs, but for the economic competitiveness it gives us and all of the jobs that accounts for in the economy,” Barbour said, according to the Clarion Ledger newspaper. “This is about global competitiveness … A big part of this is about economic growth.”
Foxx urged Congress to look past calculations of what it takes to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent, but to focus instead on achieving goals in infrastructure improvements and then decide how to fund those efforts.
“The American people know we need a better transportation system,” Foxx said. “They know we need to pay for it. They want it. Let’s give it to them.” Here is the full text of his prepared remarks.
Hoffa said: “Infrastructure investment is not about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about doing what’s right for America. Our nation’s bridges, roads, airports and ports are crumbling and it is time for Congress to hammer out a bipartisan plan that invests in our nation’s infrastructure.”