AASHTO Journal, 6 November 2015
While the House-Senate conference works to hammer out a final long-term bill in coming weeks to authorize and fund highway, rail and transit programs, a number of major industry groups have been working with lawmakers to both get a major bill and to focus on specific issues.
For instance, both House and Senate versions would create special freight programs within the Highway Trust Fund, reflecting an increased focus at the federal as well as state levels for highway projects that improve inter-modal freight linkages to support the national supply chain.
The American Association of Port Authorities, for instance, called the House-passed bill “a great victory for America’s ports.”
The American Trucking Associations also praised the House for its freight focus, and for provisions to streamline environmental reviews of infrastructure projects. And, said the ATA: “We are also pleased that lawmakers continued to support a strong federal role in transportation by soundly rejecting a resolution that endorsed devolving the funding of roads and bridges to states.”
Among its details, the House bill would provide agencies with additional flexibility to fund improvements to smaller bridges by allowing National Highway Performance Program dollars to be applied to any bridge on the federal-aid system.
However, it also includes a provision to rescind $6 billion in unobligated trust fund apportionments on July 1, 2018, which could hamper states’ ability to apply some of their federal dollars to projects most in need.
The bill that emerged from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would increase the federal share of trust fund dollars going to local governments for surface transportation block grants to 55 percent from the current 50 percent, by redirecting dollars under the current surface transportation program away from state DOTs.
Some lawmakers pushed for higher local government funding, and sought approval to try to amend the bill on the House floor to further increase that local share of population-based allocations to 60 percent.
AASHTO on behalf of state DOTs joined with the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures in a letter to House leaders against the 60 percent proposal. The House Rules Committee did not clear that amendment to be debated on the House floor.
NATSO, the national association representing truck stops and travel plazas, commended the House for approving the bill but warned about a provision that could spur more interstate highway tolling by prompting broader use of a pilot program authority.
Said NATSO President Lisa Mullings: “We don’t support tolling on existing interstates . . . In the interest of building a safer, more efficient infrastructure network, the tolling pilot program ultimately should be repealed in its entirety.”
The House legislation, like its Senate counterpart, would also renew the expired charter of the Export-Import Bank, which provides financing subsidies and guarantees to manufacturers of U.S. goods shipped abroad.
Critics say that is a form of government welfare for mostly a handful of large corporations. Advocates say large numbers of U.S. jobs are tied to those export credits, and some of the largest users are makers of transportation equipment.