Editorial: A Shrinking Table

We were disappointed — but not surprised — that Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said he would not support an increase in federal fuel taxes to fund the nation’s aging highway system. Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, made the comments at an infrastructure event in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4.

“I just don’t think that there’s the will out there with the American public or the Congress,” he said.

On a number of occasions since becoming chairman in January 2013, Shuster had indicated he was open to every option that can increase federal funding.

In fact, almost one year to the day that he expressed his opposition to increasing fuel taxes, he told Transport Topics that “everything needs to be on the table.”

Last week, however, Shuster’s comments centered on leasing off-shore oil-drilling rights, repatriating the profits American corporations are keeping overseas and a tax on vehicle miles traveled.

Those all have the possibility of providing relief to the nearly insolvent Highway Trust Fund. But industry watchers like former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood have become vocal proponents of raising federal fuel taxes — something he never spoke of during his years as a member of President Obama’s Cabinet. LaHood called for an increase of 10 cents. Shuster said he wants a long-term surface transport bill passed this summer. The current one, MAP-21, expires Sept. 30.

The need for highway funding was also a topic of discussion for National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman, who participated in a TT editorial forum on Feb. 4.

She spoke of how a lack of funding for roads hurts safety and how more money is needed for research.

During her visit, she also praised efforts by much of the trucking industry to use electronic logs and adopt other safety measures, but she was critical of out-of-service rates.

“From a safety perspective, one of the things that just confounds me is that year after year, even after millions of roadside inspections, we still see a 20% out-of-service rate,” Hersman said.

She had a similar mixed assessment for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, saying that Administrator Anne Ferro was working “hard to try to get a common-sense, rational, data-driven approach to what they’re doing.”

However, she also referenced the movie “Groundhog Day” in discussing some of the struggles FMCSA is having today, compared with the discussions two decades ago, long before the agency was officially created.

Though her comment was specifically about truck and highway safety, it also appeared to be extremely appropriate for the transportation funding debate that will play out in the months ahead.