Ryan to Offer Short-Term Fix For Road Fund
This story appears in the May 4 print edition of Transport Topics.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House’s tax-writing committee, said April 30 he will unveil a short-term measure in about three weeks that would keep highway programs funded through the end of the year.
“I don’t have it right now,” Ryan (R-Wis.) said, referring to the short-term fix.
“We’re working on that right now. We’re running numbers, getting scores and talking with our colleagues,” he told reporters here.
Ryan is working with Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to develop the terms of the short-term patch.
“I believe that Rep. [Bill] Shuster thinks that you need to get it through the year for road-construction planning reasons. So we’ll do a patch through the year,” he said.
Hatch and Wyden are chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate’s tax-writing Finance Committee. Levin is the ranking member on the Ways and Means panel, and Shuster is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees policy.
Ryan said that a short-term funding patch that expires Dec. 31 would need to be financed by about $10 billion — a sum he said the tax-writing panels’ leadership is looking to identify before the end of
May. Ryan said the measure would not be backed by an increase in taxes on fuels.
The crafting of a highway-funding proposal was occurring while he worked on a tax-reform package that he said could be ready by this summer, and the two plans could be linked.
Ryan said he would not support repatriation proposals that would fund highway programs if they are not a part a tax-reform deal. Several lawmakers have proposed repatriating overseas corporate profits to fund big-ticket infrastructure projects around the country.
If a tax-reform package is not realized this summer, Ryan said, he would look to advance a six-year highway policy bill after the short-term highway funding measure ends.
But for a long-term measure to happen, “we’ll have to put together a combination of ‘pay-fors,’ ” Ryan said, stressing: “We’re not going to raise gas taxes.”
The federal tax for diesel is 24.4 cents a gallon, and 18.4 cents for gasoline.
At a separate event earlier in the week, Shuster said he doesn’t know where his Republican colleagues will come up with the money for an extension and that he hopes any extension is long enough to help cover costs during the highway construction season this summer.
“Just like doing a long-term bill, the patch is going to be driven by the amount of money that we find,” Shuster said. “I’m for what’s possible, and I don’t think, at this point, that’s possible,” he said, when asked about increasing the fuel tax.
“But I do believe that, after we get done and the president signs a five-year bill,” Shuster added, “the stakeholders and members of Congress . . . have to really start figuring out” how to pay for transportation.
Funding authority for highway programs expires May 31, and the trust fund is projected to be unable to assist states in financing infrastructure projects by this summer. Nearly three decades ago, lawmakers revamped the nation’s tax system, and more than 20 years ago, they last raised the fuel tax.
While debate on the funding issue continues, Shuster said, his committee is working on a new long-term reauthorization bill. The bill will focus on the nation’s freight needs and its freight corridors, he said.
GOP leaders are not expected to consider the Obama administration’s Grow America Act, which would allow for a transitional 14% tax on an estimated $2 trillion in past corporate foreign profits to help fund a six-year highway bill.
Asked about the possibility of congressional leaders unveiling a long-term plan this year, Chris Spear, American Trucking Associations senior vice president of legislative affairs, told reporters April 23: “I think it’s definitely in play right now. I always say everything comes down to the details.
“We have made very clear to the committee chairs we are keeping a very open mind to this. We want to be helpful. We will be flexible in looking at the solution and seeing if our members can advocate for it,” Spear said.
He also addressed “devolution,” a concept a small group of conservatives supports, consisting of diminishing vast federal funding for big-ticket transportation projects. “I mean, what’s next? Are we going to devolve defense to the states? Are we going to go to Virginia to fight our naval battles? I mean, that’s how crazy that idea is,” Spear said.
Because of the funding uncertainty, several states have delayed or canceled construction projects that were scheduled to start this spring.
