House Leaders May Seek ‘Adjustments’ to Senate’s Jobs, Highway Legislation

This story appears in the March 1 print edition of Transport Topics.

The U.S. Senate last week passed legislation that would extend current highway legislation and transfer $20 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, but a key legislator reportedly said the Senate bill would not pass the House of Representatives, which already has approved a broader, more expensive measure.

The Senate bill, approved 70-28 on Feb. 24 with 13 Republicans voting for it, would extend the expired highway bill until the end of the year. It also provides tax incentives for hiring and Build America Bonds.

On Dec. 16 the House approved a $174 billion measure that included $36 billion for highway and transit projects on top of the $20 billion trust fund transfer. Several House leaders said they expected to make changes in the Senate’s version.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the House planned to make “some adjustments” to the bill, but, “There’s nothing we can’t work out.”

According to published reports, Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that without changes to the highway law extension, the bill could not pass.

In a statement before the Senate vote, Oberstar said he had “serious concerns” about the bill because the additional highway funding only goes to a handful of states.

“Four states receive 58% of the funding and 22 states receive nothing. In this way, the Senate bill skews the highway formula,” he said, adding that the bill also makes changes in the way other programs, including highway safety grants, will be issued.

Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard said on Feb. 25 that the chairman and other Democrats on the transportation committee want the bill changed, and “it is possible we might just do a short-term, two-week extension to keep the program going.”

The most recent extension would expire Feb. 28, Berard said Feb. 25, so “we have to do something this week.”

The Senate bill passed with several Republican votes, including Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), who cast his first major vote since taking office.

Brown stated that while the bill was “not perfect . . . it contains measures that will help put people back to work.”

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) also lent bipartisan support to the measure but only after he said he was assured the Senate would take up a long-term highway bill this year.

“I spoke to [Senate] Majority Leader [Harry] Reid prior to this vote, and he assured me that he understands the importance of a surface transportation reauthorization bill,” he said. “Leader Reid gave me his commitment that he will bring the reauthorization of a multiyear surface transportation bill to the floor for a vote this year.”

“The bill does a number of things that are very important,” Reid (D-Nev.) said after the vote. “It cuts businesses taxes. It has an incentive to hire unemployed people. It gives businesses even more tax breaks for keeping those workers on the payroll and investing in those companies’ futures and, three, it extends and expands two important programs — the Build America Bonds program and our Highway Trust Fund.”

Timothy Lynch, American Trucking Associations senior vice president for federation relations and strategic planning, told Transport Topics that while the possibility of a long-term highway bill was “great news . . . I’m wondering how they are planning to pay for it.”

Brian Turmail, spokesman for The Associated General Contractors of America, said the builders group was “disappointed that a more robust version of the bill that included more funds for transportation wasn’t ultimately considered,” even though the shoring up of the trust fund was “much-needed relief.”

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.