Updated:
7/6/2009 2:00:00 AM
Oberstar’s Road Bill Faces Survival Test
Key Senators Back Administration Position
By Michele Fuetsch, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the July 6 print edition of Transport Topics.
With the White House standing in his path and a pair of well-placed senators lining up with the administration, the guessing game in Washington is how long House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar can keep his six-year highway reauthorization bill alive in Congress.
Oberstar (D-Minn.) unveiled his proposal late last month, but the Obama administration stole his thunder, announcing that it wants the reauthorization process shelved for 18 months.
“Oberstar is not going to win this game,” said Joshua Schank, director of transportation research for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
“He’s up against the Senate and the administration, and there’s only so much he can do,” said Schank, who co-wrote a book, “All Roads Lead to Congress,” about the previous reauthorization struggle. That conflict in 2005 produced the $286.5 billion SAFETEA-LU measure — the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users — after more than two years of congressional maneuvering.
In the House, Oberstar’s bill has support from both sides of the aisle, but in the Senate, it is a different story.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has backed the White House’s desire to delay reauthorization and is writing a transportation bill of her own. Boxer is chairwoman of the Environment an
d Public Works Committee, through which any transportation bill would have to pass on its way to the Senate floor.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Finance Committee, is also backing the administration on the delay.
Oberstar, however, has allies outside Congress, as well as in the House, who oppose the administration’s bid to extend the existing transportation law beyond its Sept. 30 expiration date.
“Putting this off for another day is not going to make the decision any easier,” said Matt Jeanneret, spokesman for the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, which is running ads in Capitol Hill publications touting Oberstar’s bill.
“It’s about political will, and it’s about leadership,” Jeanneret said. “They know what the issue is here. It’s a revenue fight, and they’re going to have to have the fight at some point.”
The Oberstar bill calls for $500 billion in transportation spending but contains no recommendations on how to raise revenue, either through higher fuel taxes or something more novel, such as a tax on vehicle miles traveled.
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