Editorial: Congress Ever Churning
While people in the real world continued to make and deliver useful products and services, the 535 elected souls on Capitol Hill took a few worthwhile steps related to freight transportation last week, although it remains far from certain when or if anything will actually get accomplished.
As summer is ever so lovely, we’ll start with the greatest source for optimism. The Senate Appropriations Committee sent a bill to the full body that would fund the Department of Transportation with $55.6 billion in fiscal 2016.
Included among the line items for spending is a provision to increase the maximum size of a pup trailer to 33 feet from the current limit of 28 feet. The language is similar to what passed the House of Representatives in its transportation appropriations bill.
With both chambers in general agreement on DOT funding, that means it’s quite possible the nation’s less-than-truckload and parcel carriers will get to try out a nearly 18% productivity increase.
A solid, multiyear highway bill would be better, but twin 33-foot doubles rigs are highly valuable and worthwhile. The LTL sector will happily take them — assuming that Congress and the Obama administration can come to final agreement.
The Senate bill also tells two DOT agencies to proceed in a timely fashion on rules for electronic logging devices and mandatory speed limiters on truck engines. While the final details are always crucial, we generally endorse rules for those two ideas as well, so more good news.
Then there is the spectacle of good news that is, regrettably, somewhat absurd.
The Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee voted unanimously to approve a six-year plan for highway spending. A tip of the cap to Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) for leading a strong bipartisan effort.
We mean that, but we also don’t have much faith the plan will soon see the light of day. A plan to spend money is important, but ultimately it requires that money be made available.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are the chairmen of Congress’ two big tax committees, and neither is supporting the sort of sustainable funding necessary to stoke the furnace of a multiyear highway plan.
An acerbic observer roaming the halls of Congress compared the Inhofe-Boxer plan to a Ferrari without gasoline. It looks really great, but it can’t go anywhere.
Did we mention it’s summer?
