CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Feb. 11, 2009 – 6:06 p.m.
Highway Funding: Too Much of a Good Thing?
By Colby Itkowitz, CQ Staff
For highway construction supporters, it’s a case of “be careful what you wish for.”
While thrilled about the stimulus bill’s immediate infusion of infrastructure funding, some transportation advocates are concerned that all the cash will erode the sense of urgency for a big spending increase in the multi-year highway bill lawmakers are hoping to pass before the current law expires Sept. 30.
“I’m very worried about it,” said Peter A. DeFazio , D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
“I think a lot of people are going to sober up a bit and they’ll look at how much we’ve borrowed and it will be fiscal conservatism time,” DeFazio said.
The House version of the stimulus (
Some transportation advocates also fear that lawmakers will use the stimulus as an excuse not to rush completion of a highway bill, which could cost as much as $600 billion over five years.
“I think there’s concerns that as they look at transportation going into fiscal year 2010 that maybe, ‘Well, you’ve gotten the $30 billion, so now is a good time for you to take the hit,’ ” said Missouri Transportation Director Pete Rahn, also a former president of the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials.
But James L. Oberstar , D-Minn., and John L. Mica , R-Fla., respectively the chairman and ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said they don’t expect much pushback.
As soon as the stimulus bill is completed, Mica said, the committee is “ready to launch a full effort” to get a highway bill done both on time and with significantly higher investments. He said the Ways and Means Committee has already begun working on its finance portion.
For transportation groups, the goal is to stay on message and convince skeptics that the stimulus bill is merely a down payment on solving a much larger problem.
“I think [transportation groups] should be concerned that Congress is going to see the stimulus as doing the job,” said Janet Kavinoky, transportation director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “We have to keep the pressure on leadership to move these transportation bills.”
Money Running Out
The fundamental problem is that the federal Highway Trust Fund is projected to run short of money to fund authorized spending by this fall.
With declining revenue from taxes on motor fuels and truck sales, money flowing into the fund is not sufficient to keep up with spending.
Without an authorization bill that increases funding, spending on transportation projects would have to be cut this fall or money would have to be contributed from general tax revenue.
“The stimulus has nothing to do with the Highway Trust Fund because the whole idea was to supplement the current program, not supplant it,” said Al Biehler, secretary of the Pennsylvania Transportation Department.
The money in the stimulus bill is intended for ready-to-go projects to generate jobs quickly. The authorization bill is meant to lay out a five-year blueprint for federal transportation policy and a method to fund it.
Some transportation advocates are already unhappy that the spending on roads, bridges and transit in the stimulus is less than the amounts recommended by Oberstar’s panel.
“The dollars have not lived up to the rhetoric, and I’m afraid that’s an indication of what would happen with this authorization bill,” Rahn said. “Any number of scenarios we can be fearful of, but in the end I have to trust that there are enough people who understand the importance of this . . . that leadership and bold ideas will prevail.”
Comments
In regard to the $27.5 billion in the Stimulus bill for highways and other transportation projects, there is flawed legislative language that refers to "paragraph (b)" in section 133 of title 23 of the United States Code. There is no "paragraph (b)" in section 133 of title 23, United States Code. Presumably, the legislative language should have read "subsection (b)". Whether this clerical error and flaw will stop the use of the $27.5 billion for highway and transportation projects rests with the Federal Highway Administration and President Obama, whether they will overlook this flaw, or whether this flaw makes this part of the Stimulus bill not workable and this $27.5 billion cannot be used as stimulus money for highway and transportation projects in this bill. [Reference: Congressional Record-House, February 12, 2009, page H1331, 3rd line below heading 'Highway Infrastructure Investment']
Why in the world do you idiots in Congress keeptaxing the trucking companies large or small and then fund Mass transit with ROAD TAX DOLLARS?You not only fund mass transit but also fund the freight trains last time I checked neither one of those trains PAY ANY TYPE OF MILEAGE TAX or TOLLS!!! How about getting OUT of my POCKET and climb into Theres!!! Wake Up America!!!
POST A COMMENT
Oops! The following errors must be addressed: