Editorial: That Highway Bill

Congress finally has managed to come to grips with a bill that extends funding for highway and other transportation programs beyond the next few months.

It’s not a pretty piece of legislation, but it’s better than nothing. The alternative would have been another stopgap measure that kicked the can down the road until after the November election.

The compromise measure was pieced together by a contentious House-Senate conference committee under orders from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to complete its work before the most recent extension expired June 30.

Members of Congress were eager to get out of town for their summer recess and didn’t want to campaign for re-election this fall having done nothing on a very visible piece of legislation that affects thousands of jobs, millions of commuters and motor carriers whose deliveries are delayed by congestion and deteriorating roadways.

Despite the ugliness of the process, there are some likeable things for trucking in the final product. It does streamline the approval process for highway and other infrastructure projects, a set of complicated procedures that sometimes delay essential work for years. It does require that motor carriers deploy electronic onboard recording devices to monitor drivers’ compliance with hours-of-service limits, an important highway-safety advancement.

But the legislation is notable for the things it doesn’t do. The conference committee failed to include any provision that would have increased trucking productivity. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved extending the length of doubled pup trailers to 33 feet from the 28.5 feet now allowed. Allowing longer trailers would increase fuel efficiency

Even more importantly, the bill does not address the central and growing problem of how the federal highway program should be financed. In fact, the financing problem was the main factor blocking reauthorization of transportation legislation since the basic funding law expired almost three years ago.

The Highway Trust Fund, which built and maintains the Interstate Highway System, is falling short of growing needs, as the fuel-tax receipts that provide most of its revenue aren’t keeping up with rising costs of construction and the essential expansion of transportation infrastructure.

American Trucking Associations supports increasing the 24.4-cent-per-gallon tax on diesel fuel as long as the increased revenue is spent on improvements that facilitate freight movement.

But legislators have lacked the political will to raise taxes.

This new legislation will expire in 2014, ahead of the next round of congressional elections, with the central issue of how to pay for the nation’s highways still unresolved.