Funding Shortfall Hinders Plans for Passage of Long-Term Highway Bill Before Year End
This story appears in the March 29 print edition of Transport Topics.
Funding is the main obstacle to Congress’ passing a long-term highway bill, and several officials said last week it was unclear whether the bill could be done before the most recent extension of current law expires at the end of the year.
“The biggest problem that we face in trying to move forward . . . is the fact we have a serious revenue shortfall,” said Jim Kolb, staff director of the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee.
Kolb, who spoke March 22 at the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association’s legislative conference, said the $450 billion six-year proposal by House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) has a $145 billion revenue gap.
“It’s tough to see a way forward right now,” Kolb said.
Oberstar “clearly wants to move a bill,” the aide said, but there are obstacles, including a “toxic political environment.”
“That’s a tough hole, particularly when the word ‘tax’ is a very bad word . . . and deficit spending has become a very bad word. It really limits your options,” Kolb said.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, also speaking at the conference, said the administration was continuing work on its principles for the reauthorization but intends “to work our way through this in a very calculated and deliberate way.”
“Chairman Oberstar’s bill is a good bill and incorporates a lot of new thinking, and it also is a bill that costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 billion.
“As all of you know, there’s simply not enough money in the Highway Trust Fund to sustain all of the things that we all want to do in transportation,” LaHood said.
“President Obama wants a very strong, robust comprehensive transportation program, but finding $500 billion is very difficult,” the secretary added.
Jack Basso, director of program finance and management for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said passing the highway spending bill depends on Congress’ willingness to solve the funding question.
“You’ve got to find the money first,” Basso said. “If you don’t find the money, there’s no way to go anywhere.”
Basso said the options Congress is weighing — an increase in fuel taxes, an advance of more money from the general fund or a new funding source — seem unlikely to gain traction.
“I don’t see how we do it right now,” he said. “The problem is, are they prepared to raise revenue, and I doubt seriously that they are.”
Despite that problem, some think there may be a chance to move a bill.
“It depends on whether the Speaker of the House [Nancy Pelosi] wants to make it a priority,” said Tim Lynch, senior vice president of federation relations and strategic planning for American Trucking Associations. “She’s proven that when she does, along with the administration, they can get a lot done, but if they don’t, then not so much.”
Kolb said the predictions of some observers that Congress could take up a bill in a lame-duck session after the November congressional elections is “just talk.”
