Bipartisan Support for Road Funds, Tax Reform Likely, ATA Exec Says

This story appears in the April 3 print edition of Transport Topics.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Advancing an infrastructure funding measure alongside a tax reform package in the coming weeks is likely to garner bipartisan backing from policymakers and support from the freight industry, officials representing trucking executives and states’ transportation directors said last week.

“This setback in the health care changes really sort of changed the calculus of Congress and the administration going forward,” said John Drake, American Trucking Associations senior vice president for legislative affairs, at the Safety Management Council and Transportation Security Council policy conference March 28.

Drake

The next day at the conference, Drake’s sentiment was echoed by Joung Lee, policy director at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials.

“Infrastructure really is part of one of the top three items right now, and that is extremely rare,” Lee said. “The stars really are aligning. Hopefully, that will lead to some sort of a meaningful outcome rather than, ‘they talked a lot’ and setting high expectations but not being able to meet that.”

The Trump White House and the Republican-led Congress expressed interest in advancing an overhaul of tax policy and infrastructure funding measures after a short-lived, but dramatic attempt to reform health care.

Trucking executives are among the stakeholders urging policymakers to increase funding for infrastructure projects. Most transportation sectors support raising federal fuel taxes to fund the transportation grid. Neither the White House nor Republicans on the Hill have stated how they would fund a long-term infrastructure plan.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior transportation authorizer on the Commerce Committee, sounded enthusiastic about the legislative approach. “Combining these objectives makes sense, because tax reform could generate new revenues from a deemed repatriation as we move to a territorial international tax system,” the senator said in a statement March 28.

In February, President Trump asked Congress to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill backed by public and private funds. The president promised to present Congress with such a plan during his first 100 days in office. Senate Democrats, who already unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure blueprint that would be backed by public funds, say they are waiting on GOP leaders to reveal their plan.

At the conference, Drake also stressed ATA remains hopeful a meal and rest break pre- emption provision will be included in a fiscal 2017 funding bill this month. The bill, referred to as an omnibus, would keep the fed-eral government operating after April 28.

“Enacting this clarification is going to put in place a clarification that we think is necessary nationwide,” Drake said. “We are, at this point, cautiously optimistic that we are in a very good spot.”

A pre-emption provision would clarify a requirement in a 1994 aviation law called F4A and block a California law signed in 2011. That law requires employers to provide a “duty-free” 30-minute meal break for employees who work more than five hours a day, as well as a second “duty-free” 30-minute meal break for those who work more than 10 hours a day.