Boxer, State Agencies Back Bill For Jobs, Infrastructure Funds

This story appears in the Feb. 22 print edition of Transport Topics.

The chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, along with representatives of state transportation departments and contractors, urged the Senate to pass a scaled-back version of a jobs bill that would include infrastructure funding, when Congress returns from recess this week.

“It’s clear that investments in infrastructure are a crucial component of job creation, and ensuring that these are included in the very first jobs package is essential,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told reporters during a Feb. 17 conference call.

Boxer highlighted the Senate bill’s infusion of nearly $20 billion into the Highway Trust Fund, extension of the current highway spending law through the end of the year and expansion of the Build America Bonds program.

In particular, Boxer said, the trust fund and highway spending extension are “very critical.”

“If we don’t have that transfer starting in June — and certainly by August — the trust fund will be out of money,” she said, which would lead states to stop funding projects.

“We’re talking about preserving a million jobs,” Boxer said.

She also pushed for the Build America Bonds program, which allows the federal government to make some of the interest payments on the debt taken out by states and municipalities for transportation and other projects.

John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said that of the $65 billion in bonds issued last year, $17 billion were directed toward transportation.

Horsley said failure to pass the Senate jobs bill would “drop the bottom out of whatever jobs are being created” through the stimulus.

If the highway bill does not get a long-term extension, he said, states will lose $12 billion this year.

“States are losing $1 billion each month without a long-term extension,” Horsley said. “Since September of last year, Congress has passed three short-term extensions, the most recent of which will expire in just 11 days. This bill would restore the baseline for the transportation program from $30 billion to $42 billion and restore certainty to states.”

The Senate is slated to vote on the package, which also includes a tax incentive to hire unemployed workers and accelerated depreciation for purchases of new equipment.

However, in order to pass it, Democrats probably will have to coax at least one Republican to vote for the measure in order to overcome a filibuster.

Boxer said she was “very hopeful” that at least one Republican would break ranks and vote for the package, noting that some members of her committee “sounded like they wanted to be helpful.”

However, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the co-creator of the hiring-tax incentive, said he didn’t believe any Republicans would vote for the bill.

“I personally believe that every Republican would have to vote against cloture,” he told The Associated Press.

Hatch said the procedural vote would be a protest against the decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to scrap a proposal from Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, in favor of the smaller package just hours after the pair announced their deal (click here for previous story).

The House, which passed a much larger jobs bill before the Christmas holiday, also will have to sign off on the Reid bill.

The two top Democrats in the House offered mixed signals on the fate of a potential Senate bill in the lower chamber.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated that the House “looks forward to reviewing the Senate proposal,” but added that House Democrats would “work to ensure critical pieces of [its bill] are enacted into law.”

“We feel it’s very important to pass a bill which will help expand the economy and grow jobs, so we’d be very inclined — if the Senate can pass something — we’re going to pass that, and we know we can pass that,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), told reporters Feb. 12.

Boxer said the four-piece package would be the first of several initiatives from the Senate aimed at cutting into the nation’s high unemployment rate.

“We’re going to have other jobs bills in the future,” she said, adding that those bills would include more infrastructure funding.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.