The Senate has passed an extension of the transportation bill in order to keep highway and transit aid flowing to states through December 4. That authority was set to expire today. The extension, which has already been passed by the House, now goes to President Obama.
The separate measures passed by the House and Senate would set transportation policy for six years and would be the first long-term highway bill in a decade. However, neither the House or Senate could come up with funding to pay for more than three years. The bills are similar, but negotiators say they need more time to reconcile differences and to determine how to pay for transportation programs. The House bill provides $325 billion while the Senate bill has $342 billion.
Congress rejected the idea of raising the 18.4-cent federal gas tax to fund transportation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Automobile Association, labor unions, and truckers all urged Congress to raise the gas tax. The gas tax, last raised in 1993, has been eroded by inflation and more fuel efficient vehicles. However, members of Congress, who have pledged no new taxes, have thus far resisted increasing the gas tax.
Faced with questions over whether federal dollars will be available for projects carried out by state highway and transit authorities, almost two dozen states have already raised heir state gas tax to bolster their ability to pay for road and transit projects.
“The funding approach laid out before us is no one’s first choice,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), who replaced House Speaker Paul Ryan as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “We want to see a permanent solution to the Highway Trust Fund shortfall.”
The House-passed bill would use money from the Federal Reserve Bank surplus account that the Fed uses to cushion against potential losses. The Senate proposed 13 different funding sources, including selling 101 million barrels of oil from the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reducing the amount of interest the Federal Reserve pays to banks; and redirecting fees paid by airline passengers into the Highway Trust Fund.
Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, lamented the failure to find a dedicated funding stream to augment the trust fund. However, he said “there will be ample time to continue working on infrastructure funding and financing issues. Only now we won’t have to do that work starting into the abyss of trust fund insolvency.”
House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) said on Wednesday that the conference committee planned to have the bill finalized by November 30 so it can get final approval from both houses before the deadline. Shuster said that as soon as the bill clears the president’s desk, Congress should tacke the financing issue so it no longer has to look for money “behind the couch and under the cushions.”
