Boxer Says New Road Bill May Be Completed in Spring

This story appears in the Nov. 23 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — The chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said she was preparing to finish work on a new long-term highway bill by next spring while also seeking a six-month extension of the existing law.

“Getting a bill out is what I’d like to do,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told reporters Nov. 18, following a briefing with Department of Transportation officials.

Boxer cautioned that while her committee could finish by the spring, a timetable for passage by the full Senate was not her decision. She also said she was presently “focused on the six-month extension” of the current funding legislation.

The last six-year highway law expired in September. Congress has twice passed short-term extensions as part of bills to continue funding the government while completing overdue long-term spending bills. The latest extension expires Dec. 18.

On Nov. 17, Boxer, other Senate committee chairmen and ranking Republicans wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) asking them to bring a six-month extension to the floor for a vote.

Previous attempts to pass multi-month extensions have stalled on the Senate floor because of Republican objections.

Those extensions have cut the amount of money available to states by as much as 30%, said Roy Kienitz, DOT undersecretary for policy. However, since many states have unused funds still to tap, and the winter months generally slow construction spending, he said the problem is not yet acute.

“Every day that goes by, though, it becomes more and more problematic,” Kienitz said.

By extending the highway bill as part of continuing resolutions that fund the government, DOT said, it is forced to cut back on how much money it can allow states to spend. The Senate’s independent extension would reverse this rescission of funds.

Boxer said that while she continues to favor the longer, 18-month extension that would restore that lost funding and has been supported by the White House, “I can’t convince the House.”

In the House, several transportation leaders, most notably Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), have steadfastly opposed a long extension, instead preferring to work out a series of short-term stopgaps with the hope of passing new, long-term legislation.

Boxer said the House’s tactics have brought transportation funding to “a crisis point” so they could “double the gas tax.”

She said she couldn’t support that because “I don’t have the votes in this committee to do that, let alone in the full Senate. I’m reflecting reality.”

Jim Berard, a spokesman for Oberstar, said the House wasn’t creating a crisis but rather just working to keep the pressure on to enact a full reauthorization.

“We’ve been trying to move the ball forward all year, and we’re not trying to create a crisis, but we’re trying to keep the light shining on the long-term bill,” he said.

John Porcari, DOT deputy secretary, said during the briefing that the administration still supported delaying reauthorization of the program until 2011. He said an 18-month plan passed by several Senate committees earlier in the year “allows us the freedom to put together a reauthorization bill” that addresses funding and other questions.

Declining travel and increases in fuel efficiency have created a “central fiscal problem” for the Highway Trust Fund, Kienitz said.

Currently, the fund, which has needed infusions of general revenue twice in the past two years, “is actually very healthy right now,” Kienitz said, telling senators there was more than $5 billion in the account — enough to “last well into next year.”

Even if the Senate passed a six-month stopgap, there’s no guarantee such an extension would win Oberstar’s support.

Berard said that Oberstar would only support an extension “that is contingent on making progress on the long-term bill and not just delay for the sake of delay.”

If Congress did agree to a six-month extension, Berard said, both sides of Capitol Hill would need to work quickly to pass a long-term bill before it expired.

“We’ll have to move on it in the very near future if we’re going to get it done in six months,” Berard said.

Berard said a “best-case scenario” would have the House passing a bill in January, the Senate following suit in February and a joint House-Senate conference committee finishing a bill in March.

The push to move a highway bill, or some other infrastructure spending package, appears to be spurred by October’s unemployment figures, said Tim Lynch, senior vice president of American Trucking Associations, noting that “10.2% unemployment has gotten a lot of attention on Capitol Hill.”