Senate Panel Approves Extension of Existing Highway Legislation

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

WASHINGTON — The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved an 18-month extension of existing highway legislation even as House leaders continued to oppose a delay in passing a new multiyear transportation funding bill.

At a July 15 hearing, the committee approved what its chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), called “the right thing to do.”

Boxer said that when combined with the funds directed toward transportation in the federal stimulus package, there has been a 50% increase in spending over the existing law.

The 18-month extension is supported by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He told the committee the Obama administration’s request for the delay in crafting a new transportation law “times out the use of the stimulus money.”

Boxer said the extension, which would come with a $20 billion transfer into the depleting Highway Trust Fund, would allow projects to move forward instead of being delayed over concerns about future federal investments.

“The last thing we want to do is create uncertainty,” she said.

The extension also must be approved by the Senate’s commerce and finance committees before moving to the full Senate.

In a statement, LaHood praised the extension as “the right length of time” and commended Boxer for “putting us on the right path to addressing a more comprehensive transportation measure.”

Before the extension passed, an amendment by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) to reduce it to 12 months failed.

Voinovich said the shorter time frame would “keep the pressure on Congress to reauthorize a robust multiyear bill.”

He said House leaders oppose an extension and called his defeated amendment “a good compromise that we can get through Congress and get done.”

On July 14, Voinovich appeared at a press conference with Reps. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the top Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, in support of a new long-term bill.

“A transportation reauthorization bill — multiyear — would be a real stimulus to the economy,” Voinovich said, referring to recent calls for a second stimulus package.

Oberstar said that the trust fund, while threatened, is not on the brink of running out of money and “will still have enough money to pay states at the end of August. It will not be bankrupt.”

He also said he believed an 18-month extension would not be limited to 18 months.

“This would put us into the next presidential election cycle,” Oberstar said. “And then it will take four years. It will not be a year and a half. I know how this body works — the House and Senate, that is — and inertia becomes the enemy of progress.”

In a July 16 hearing after the extension passed, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the top Republican on the House panel, called the proposed delay “a prelude to economic disaster.”

“I cannot think of any piece of legislation more important than a six-year, fully funded transportation and infrastructure bill,” Mica said. 

Oberstar said he and DeFazio had the support of the House leadership to move forward, and he expected to offer several suggestions on how to fund their $450 billion, six-year bill to the Ways and Means Committee at a hearing this week.

Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was “a proponent for bringing up a full transportation bill, which is a great jobs bill.”

The House push leaves the body at loggerheads with the Senate and LaHood.

“In my conversations with Chairman Oberstar he has one answer to the funding: gas taxes,” Boxer said. “In order [to fund] his six-year bill you’d have to double the gas tax. Now if anyone thinks that’s a good idea, they’re out of touch with reality.”

LaHood declined to say whether DOT would compromise with Oberstar and other House leaders, telling reporters only that the administration specifically is “asking Congress to pass an 18-month extension that costs about $20 billion.