Congress Votes to Extend Transportation Funding

This story appears in the Nov. 2 print edition of Transport Topics.

Both houses of Congress  on Oct. 29 approved a second continuing resolution that would continue to fund the nation’s surface transportation programs until mid-December.

The House passed the bill, which also provided annual funds for the Environmental Protection Agency, by a 247-178 vote. Several hours later, the Senate approved the measure 72-28.

The first temporary extension, passed before the Sept. 30 expiration of the highway funding law, was set to expire on Oct. 31. Besides funding highway and transit programs, the resolution provides emergency funding to continue operating the federal government.

“It appears that we’re going to ride the [continuing resolution] as far as it takes us and then decide what kind of extension we want,” said Jim Berard, spokesman for Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Observers said a second short-term extension could be a win for Oberstar, who has battled the Senate and the Obama administration for a new six-year bill sooner rather than later.

“Chairman Oberstar wants a three-month extension, and he’s already counted October in those three months. So, he basically wins,” said Tim Lynch, a senior vice president of American Trucking Associations.

As the House was preparing to vote, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood continued to push for the 18-month extension favored by the Obama administration.

“We had recommended an 18-month extension, and not many people on Capitol Hill paid attention to that, since now it looks like there will be an extension through [mid-] December,” LaHood told a House subcommittee Oct. 29. “The president wants a very strong, comprehensive robust transportation bill. He believes in it. We believe in it. But, we also believe that we’ve got to find $400 [billion] or $500 billion to pay for it because that’s probably what it takes to have the kind of bill that we all want.”

Earlier in the week, it appeared the Senate was moving toward a six-month extension, through April.

“This six-month extension, which I proposed to my colleagues on the [Environment and Public Works] Committee, is a fair compromise and a very important step in the right direction,” Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) said Oct. 26. “We must keep the pressure on to reauthorize a robust, multiyear transportation bill that will meet America’s surface transportation needs and put America’s economy back on track.”

However, Lynch said that before the six-month extension could reach the Senate floor, an objection was lodged, effectively killing it.

It is the second time the Senate tried and failed to pass an extension: Before the current bill expired on Sept. 30, the Senate unsuccessfully tried to pass a three-month extension.

“You’ve seen movement on the Senate side come from 18 months down in their timeline. I think the chairman’s argument is certainly raising the prospects . . . of doing a bill sooner rather than later,” said Mike Joyce, a lobbyist with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

Oberstar is “winning these small little battles,” he said, which keeps the bill “on the front burner.”

But Joyce said it may be hard to pass a long-term bill because, “unfortunately, 2010 is an election year, so if you’re going to raise user fees or taxes, that may be very difficult.”

Lynch said an increase in the fuel tax might be the most palatable option ahead of the mid-term election.

“The political calculation is: Are you in worse shape if you vote for a fuel-tax increase in an election year, or are you worse by dipping into general fund, thereby being accused of increasing the deficit in order to pay for a highway program?” Lynch said.

There are “only two things they can do” to finance a long-term bill, he said: “. . . vote an increase [in the fuel tax] in order to pay for the program, or take it out of general revenue.”

The general revenue argument, he said may “have been attractive, but the political dynamics around that are such that, that may be less acceptable to the public than a fuel tax increase.”

OOIDA’s Joyce said he believed Congress would continue pass-ing short-term extensions beyond December.

“I get the feeling that we’ll be pushing into that six-month time frame that the Senate had wanted,” he said, because in mid-December, “a three-month [extension] is probably most likely when you look at the congressional calendar.”