Senators Say They Have Reached Agreement on Framework for Highway Funding Bill

This story appears in the April 14 print edition of Transport Topics.

Four U.S. senators leading the debate for a long-term transportation bill said that they have reached a bipartisan agreement on the broad principles for legislation they will begin working on after the Easter recess.

Two Democrats and two Republican lawmakers, all members of the Environment and Public Works Committee, made the announcement April 10 and cited their top priority will be to maintain current spending levels.

“The reason the four of us are standing here is to send a strong signal to this country that we, as leaders of this committee, have worked across party lines to act before the Highway Trust Fund cannot pay its bills,” EPA Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said at a press conference in the Capitol.

The Highway Trust Fund is expected to be insolvent by late summer, and the current transportation spending law, MAP-21, a two-year measure, expires Sept. 30.

A shortfall in the trust fund would be “devastating to thousands of businesses and millions of workers across the country, not to mention every American that uses roads or transportation systems,” Boxer said.

Without an extension of MAP-21 or passage of a new spending reauthorization law, the federal government would be unable to collect fuel taxes or fund highway projects.

The committee’s ranking member, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.),

said, “What we have is a detailed outline of the next highway bill in terms of policy matters within our jurisdiction.”

Vitter said staff is working on the legislative language and that he’s reaching out to Republican colleagues on the Senate Commerce and Banking committees, encouraging them to reach bipartisan agreements on the portions of the transportation bill that lie within their jurisdiction.

“Admittedly, compared to the Finance Committee, which has to lead all of us in helping figure out how to pay for this hopefully six-year bill, we have an easier role,” Vitter said.

If agreed to by Congress, a Senate bill that maintains the current spending level would authorize about $109 billion annually, plus inflation.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of EPW’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said the bipartisan agreement among himself, Boxer, Vitter and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), ranking member on the subcommittee, marked an important moment from which their colleagues could begin the debate on how to pay for transportation.

“For a number of years, what we’ve done is to outline a transportation plan and, rather than raise the money to pay for it, simply move money over from the general fund and then go out around the world and borrow money to replenish the general fund,” Carper said.

The trust fund is supported by fuel tax revenue that is shrinking as Americans drive less and also buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. Facing shortfalls for years, Congress has been making transfers from the general fund. The total transfer this year is about $10 billion.

Carper said that the four senators agreeing on the broad principles for the bill “will help enable and encourage our colleagues in the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to actually be willing to do the tough heavy lifting to figure out how to pay for what we all know we need to do.”

Boxer said tens of thousands of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient and that less than 50% of roads are in good condition.

Barrasso, who hails from one of the most rural states in the country, said one of the principles agreed on by the senators is a focus on policies that expand opportunities for rural areas.

The reauthorization bill, he said, is “critical to the success of rural and urban areas and the centerpiece, I believe, to building a reliable and robust economic recovery.”

He also said that the upcoming bill and the bipartisan agreement between the leading senators represent “a real opportunity here to work across the aisle to craft fiscally responsible legislation that will do what needs to be done for our roads and bridges.”

The principles they agree on “will ensure that taxpayer money is wisely spent and ensure that the formulas for existing core programs are maintained,” Barrasso said.

The other principles that the four said would guide them are: maintaining the formulas for existing core programs, continuing efforts to leverage local resources to accelerate the construction of transportation projects and requiring what they said was better information- sharing regarding federal grants.

In a statement issued after the press conference, Carper also referenced a focus on freight.

“I am pleased that we’ve agreed to revisit the emphasis on improving the efficiency, reliability and affordability of freight transportation across the country,” Carper’s statement said.

A Senate staffer, speaking on background, said the senators want to build on freight provisions contained in MAP-21, such as a national freight network.

The Department of Transportation has released a draft freight network, but it doesn’t include ports, airports or rail facilities.