Editorial: Another Highway Bill Pothole

Yes, there has been some new movement on Capitol Hill in the drive to get a highway funding bill through and into law. But don’t pop the champagne just yet: the “movement” is simply Congress kicking the can down the road once again.

Our hopes for some real and speedy progress in the wake of the move on the Senate side to craft a two-year compromise mini-bill last month were dashed last week when Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said there was not enough time left to consider any highway bill before late January at the earliest.

Congress has indeed created a situation where it has a mountain of pending issues to deal with in the waning days of the year, but it’s surely well past time for legislators to do the heavy lifting involved in getting this important legislation enacted.

Most everyone seems to agree that the nation’s aging infrastructure needs tending, but very few people on Capitol Hill appear ready to do anything about making it happen.

More than enough time has passed for Congress to come to grips with this issue; the last comprehensive highway funding legislation expired in 2009 and now has been extended by Congress eight times. We still hope that Capitol Hill is able to get its act together and pass a new, long-term bill before the current extension expires on March 31.

Mica’s decision to delay consideration of the bill will put the process on a very short leash. Congress won’t return until Jan. 17 after it breaks for Christmas and the New Year, and has already scheduled recesses for the weeks of Feb. 20 and March 12.

And considering the wide gulf between Mica’s position and that of a bipartisan group in the Senate that has proposed a two-year, $109 billion transportation spending bill, there’s certainly no guarantee that the legislative process will quickly produce a compromise acceptable to both bodies.

As we’ve said many times, what the nation can’t afford is a continuation of the snail’s pace toward new legislation to fund badly needed infrastructure expansion and repair.

This bill, if done right, should not only strengthen the nation’s economy by keeping U.S.-made products more competitive in export markets, it should also keep domestic prices down and provide a slew of construction jobs as well.