Rules Committee Paves Way for Transportation Spending Bill on House Floor

The House Rules Committee adopted an open rule process for a fiscal 2015 transportation funding bill by voice vote on May 29.

Floor debate on the transportation bill could take place as early as the week of June 9, and its debate could consume at least one legislative day. Under an open rule, the members will be allowed to offer amendments on the floor seeking to make changes to the bill.

The rule would provide one hour of general debate and one motion to recommit the bill to the committee of jurisdiction with or without instructions.

Before agreeing on the rule, committee member Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) questioned provisions in the bill that would make changes to truck weight rules in three states, saying, “I don’t think it should be in this bill.”

“It is a mistake to advocate for bigger, longer trucks,” McGovern said. “I think they should be brought on a train and not on our highways.” He also criticized multiple times the bill’s funding allocations for infrastructure programs.

The bill would allow Idaho to have longer combination trucks on its stretch of the interstate system if the trucks have a gross weight of 129,000 pounds or less and are authorized to operate under state law. It also would allow state officials to have higher weight limits for trucks if U.S. Route 41 in Wisconsin and U.S. Route 78 in Mississippi are designated as part of the interstate system.

Bill sponsor Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, defended the weight provisions.

The $52 billion Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill is about $1.2 billion above the fiscal 2014 enacted level and nearly $8 billion below the Obama administration’s fiscal 2015 budget request. It would provide $40.25 billion in formula highway spending for the federal Highway Trust Fund account, matching the 2014 level.

The bill would provide $100 million for TIGER, a popular transportation grant program, which is $500 million less than fiscal 2014 enacted level. It also would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to prove to Congress a restart-restriction rule is of value to the trucking industry.

The Appropriations Committee approved the bill on May 21 on 28-21 vote. On June 3, Senate appropriators have scheduled subcommittee consideration of their version that would allocate $54.4 billion for housing and transportation programs.