AASHTO Journal, 16 October 2015
Congress could soon be farther down the path of passing a long-term surface transportation bill than any time since 2005, as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans an Oct. 22 markup vote that would send the measure to the full House.
“Our nation’s economy depends on a safe, efficient surface transportation system, and one of the Transportation Committee’s priorities is to address the needs of the system,” said Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., as he announced the bill markup schedule.
He said the committee “will move forward with the policy and authorization provisions of a bill to improve America’s surface transportation infrastructure, reform programs, refocus those programs on national priorities, provide more flexibility and certainty for state and local partners, and welcome innovation.”
Once that happens, the Ways and Means Committee could unveil its list of proposals to pay for the measure, and the full House could potentially pass a multiyear highway and transit bill
before the Highway Trust Fund’s program authority expires Oct. 29.
At press time there was no information from Ways and Means on how it would fund the T&I measure.
The current House leadership of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio – who has announced plans to leave Congress when the GOP majority chooses a new Speaker – and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., have indicated they want to quickly pass a long-term bill they see as important to the economy.
The House committee called its bill the “Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act,” in keeping with that panel’s practice of emphasizing reforms it builds into legislation such as it did earlier with water projects and rail program bills. Here is the text.
The Senate-passed DRIVE Act would authorize highway and transit programs for six years with only three years of funding, and rail programs for four years, to combine all surface transportation modes in the same legislation.
Since the House earlier passed separate passenger rail legislation, the T&I bill focuses mainly on highway and transit programs that it would reauthorize for six years. Like the DRIVE Act, the House bill would also prevent distribution of authorized funds for the final three years if Congress has not provided money to maintain minimum balances of $4 billion in the highway account and $1 billion in the mass transit account.
The Senate bill would provide about $2 billion more a year in overall highway/transit funding than the T&I plan.
If the committee bill passes the House that would mark the first time since 2005 that both chambers had passed long-term highway bills.
The 2005 law expired in 2009 and was followed by numerous extensions before Congress passed the two-year MAP-21 law in 2012. Congress has repeatedly extended that law as well with a variety of short-term funding actions.
Despite the sudden progress on a major bill, lawmakers will almost certainly still have to pass another short-term trust fund extension, since the House and Senate will need to negotiate differences between their bills in a conference that could take weeks.
But having both chambers pass long-term bills would give momentum to a process that could send a final version to the president this fall. Still, backers were mindful of that looming Oct. 29 deadline.
Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said: “AASHTO and state department of transportation executives are encouraged by the recent activity on a long-term bill, but will also be working with lawmakers as the legislation moves through the next phases.
“And while it is good to see such progress on a major bill, we also want Congress to make sure there is no interruption of Highway Trust Fund programs later this month.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee and one of the main architects of the Senate bill, wrote Boehner and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Oct. 14 to press for fast, bipartisan action.
“We must pass a multi-year transportation bill without delay,” Boxer wrote.
Saying she was “heartened” by word of the T&I bill markup plan, Boxer noted that the trust fund was fast approaching its Oct. 29 deadline. “This crisis requires all of us to join hands across the aisle to ensure we pass a multiyear surface transportation bill and do it in a way that is funded,” Boxer added.
Lawmakers have also been getting the message from state transportation officials, related industry groups and governors who will have to propose their own budgets to legislatures but need certainty about the federal contribution to infrastructure spending.
Among them was a group of governors from North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, who met Sept. 29 in Washington with members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that is headed by John Thune, R-S.D.
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said he told committee members: “What we need is a strong, multiyear funding bill that provides certainty so that projects can move forward without delay. Our transportation system is the backbone of our economy and quality of life. We can’t continue to operate under short-term funding extensions that allow critical roadway projects to fall behind.”
Dalrymple also said uncertainty this year over federal funding had delayed his state’s bidding process on about $92 million in road projects, and that so far states have no certainty about when or how much federal funding will be available for projects under development for the 2016 construction season.