Lots of Talk, Little Action on Highway Funding

This story appears in the April 20 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — As a Senate panel prepares to consider a long-term highway bill, House transportation leaders are signaling support for a short-term funding fix.

The different plans, details of which have not been made public, are meant to ensure states continue to receive federal dollars this summer.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the transportation policy committee, said he’s “nearly done crafting a bill” that would authorize highway programs for five or six years.

Addressing reporters outside of the U.S. Capitol on April 15 next to leaders of top transportation organizations, Inhofe, indicated his legislation likely would be considered before federal highway funding authority expires May 31.

Inhofe’s counterpart, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), said his colleagues in the House soon would be considering a short-term extension.

Transportation groups have been urging Congress to avoid a short-term fix and pass a multiyear bill. That also is the path sought by the Obama administration, which recently announced its updated six-year, $478 billion “Grow America” transportation plan.

However, Inhofe explained, there are outstanding issues with a multiyear bill, notably identifying a sustainable source of funding for the Highway Trust Fund and getting GOP colleagues to back the measure.

To resolve those concerns, Inhofe has assured people that he has had productive conversations with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee — a panel with jurisdiction over the trust fund. But Hatch and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Ways and Means panel, have yet to say how they would keep the trust fund solvent.

Regarding his fellow Republicans, Inhofe said: “What they don’t realize is that . . . the only alternative to a highway reauthorization bill is a short-term extension that costs about 30% more — clearly ours is the conservative approach to it.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works committee, confirmed to Transport Topics that her camp and Inhofe were “close to an agreement” on a long-term bill. Boxer said she would back most funding proposals, but she downplayed the likelihood the measure would pass as part of a comprehensive tax reform package this year.

The EPW leaders announced their progress a day after Shuster said that House Republican leaders are planning to push ahead a plan that would ensure dollars for highway programs continue to reach states after May.

Shuster would not say exactly what type of plan House colleagues would be unveiling soon, but he explained that a long-term plan might be included as part of a broad tax overhaul package.

“Whichever is the one that gets me the money to do a long-term bill is the one I favor,” Shuster told TT at the Transportation Construction Coalition’s annual legislative conference last week. “I believe there is bipartisan support to do some form of tax reform.”

Meanwhile, key lawmakers have unveiled plans to replenish the trust fund. Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) introduced legislation last week that would index gas and diesel user fees to inflation.

The legislation, according to his aides, would help raise about $27.5 billion and provide funding for infrastructure projects around the country for nearly two years. It also would establish a bipartisan, bicameral transportation commission charged with identifying a way to come up with a sustainable funding source. It is unclear if the legislation would be taken up by Ways and Means.

Industry leaders have told Congress they would prefer a long-term highway measure to reach the president’s desk. American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said a well-funded, long-term highway bill would strongly benefit the industry.

“We’re only a month and a half from the expiration of the current highway bill,” Graves said, “so we implore leaders on Capitol Hill, at the Department of Transportation and in the White House to step up and deliver a plan, and funding, for the transportation system our country needs and deserves.”

However, several stakeholders have begun to accept the possibility that lawmakers probably will approve one or several short-term funding patches before they seriously take up a long-term reauthorizing plan.

“I think it’s going to be a fairly short [extension],” Pete Ruane, CEO of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, told reporters April 15. “The good news is [a transportation plan] is in front of them. They’re seriously looking at it, and they’re going to do something.

“The bottom line is Congress is not going to punt like they did on a few other major pieces of legislation. They’re going to deal with this.”