Senate EPW Panel to Mark Up Transportation Bill May 15
The top transportation policy writers in the Senate said they would introduce a six-year transportation bill May 12 and scheduled the bill’s committee consideration for May 15, more than two weeks after the Obama administration unveiled its four-year proposal.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the bill would update the programs in 2012 highway law MAP-21, which expires in September. She said the bill also would expand the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), establish a formula-based freight program and propose funding structures aimed at shoring up the depleted Highway Trust Fund. According to the Department of Transportation, the trust fund will be insolvent by August if it is not boosted by supplemental funds.
Boxer has indicated she would consider excise taxes on vehicle tires to supplement the fund.
“This job-creating legislation provides the long-term funding certainty that states, cities and businesses need,” Boxer said.
A long-term bill would be welcomed by many industry stakeholders who have argued that MAP-21’s two-year reauthorizing window proved difficult for state and local governments to plan for long-term projects.
Recently, Boxer, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), ranking member of the full committee, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, said they had reached an agreement on a long-term transportation bill. Boxer’s House counterpart, Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), has yet to unveil his reauthorization legislation.
On April 29, the administration sent Congress a transportation proposal that would reform corporate tax structures to generate about $150 billion in revenue as a way for boosting the trust fund.
