This Editorial appears in the May 12 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today. The recent death of former Rep. James Oberstar, paired with last month’s retirement announcement from Rep. Tom Petri, leaves us casting about for heroes in transportation who would work in the manner of the late Minnesota Democrat and the departing Wisconsin Republican.
Doing solid congressional committee work isn’t heroic in terms of risking one’s life. However, there is something highly admirable about the way those two men latched onto an issue of national importance, studied it thoroughly and set about crafting highly useful plans that could gain approval from at least 218 representatives, 51 senators and the president.
That’s a lot of hearings, bargaining, pleading and arm-twisting, but a legislator could take real satisfaction if it helped solve a problem. President Ronald Reagan liked to quote President Harry Truman’s observation: “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Today, there’s a lot of caring about credit. Good deals get refused because opponents might be able to benefit from them. Ideologues, from the left and right, prefer to strive instead for that perfect day when they will control both houses of Congress and the presidency.
We don’t want to wallow in nostalgia. It’s better to work hard on building the future. But studying history is often a useful way to get to the future.
The Senate transportation funding proposal released as this issue was going to press might be an example of collaboration across the aisle. Democrats Barbara Boxer and Tom Carper, along with Republicans David Vitter and John Barrasso, have joined forces within the Environment and Public Works Committee to produce a successor to the surface transportation bill MAP-21 that expires Sept. 30.
The Obama administration released its plan in April, and a week ago we welcomed the effort, albeit begrudgingly, since nearly half of the $302 billion proposed in that four-year plan would come from the Treasury’s general fund rather than dedicated sources such as fuel taxes.
Multiyear spending plans, though, go to the heart of legislative responsibility.
We urge representatives and senators of both parties to use what they can from these two plans, talk to each other — even people from the opposite party — and pound out a transportation deal that will not perfect the nation but will make life better and more prosperous in all 50 states.
Oberstar just loved that sort of thing.
