Insiders Say House Transport Bill Likely to Omit Tolling Provisions
By Eugene Mulero, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the June 2 print edition of Transport Topics.
House transportation leaders are not expected to drop tolling restrictions on existing interstate highways as they consider ways to fund highway programs in a policy bill they could unveil this summer, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Dropping those tolling restrictions was a key provision in a transportation plan the White House sent to Congress in April.
Senior congressional staffers, former aides on Capitol Hill and freight transportation officials told Transport Topics that lawmakers are downplaying or dismissing the use of tolls as they put together multiyear legislation that would update a 2012 highway funding law. That law, MAP-21, expires at the end of September.
Ken Orski, a transportation analyst, said he’s learned that House lawmakers will look to “reflect more closely the sentiments in the states’ legislatures,” which are quite negative about tolling.
Orski argues that revenue from tolling does not enhance the long-term solvency of federal highway funding programs, and including tolling provisions in a long-term bill would be much like opening a “Pandora’s box of political angst.”
Trucking groups and stakeholders throughout the freight industry oppose tolling because they equate it to a form of double taxation that also can create slowdowns along the roadways.
“We’d be somewhat surprised if there was additional tolling authority given to the states, at least for the existing interstate highways,” said Dave Osiecki, chief of national advocacy for American Trucking Associations, speaking about the potential legislation coming from the House.
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has not said when the House panel would unveil a highway bill this year, and his office did not respond to requests for comment. But there’s an expectation among several senior congressional staffers that Shuster’s committee will press forward this summer with a short-term funding extension for highway programs before proceeding with a long-term highway bill.
Observers have suggested House GOP lawmakers are waiting until after the November midterm elections to move forward with transportation legislation.
“Nobody is expecting legislation that champions the use of tolls. It’s too controversial for many of our stakeholders,” said a senior congressional aide with a contributing role in shaping the House bill. “There’s an understanding of what tolls could do to the flow of commerce, so we’re not going to see too much about tolling anytime soon.”
Transportation experts said they instead expect House policy writers eventually to unveil a bill that resembles parts of the six-year Senate transportation bill that the Environment and Public Works Committee approved in May.
The Senate legislation does not authorize tolls as a way to raise money for the depleting federal Highway Trust Fund account. However, it would direct the Department of Transportation to study “alternative transportation revenue mechanisms that preserve a user fee structure to maintain the long-term solvency” of the trust fund.
On June 3, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will consider that transportation bill at a hearing that several experts are calling an academic exercise because the panel does not plan to propose specific funding for the trust fund. The Senate bill leaves it up the Finance Committee to approve a funding system.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the trust fund could be insolvent as early as July, but many lawmakers have been reluctant to raise the national tax on diesel and gasoline. Revenue from fuel taxes is not enough to keep the fund solvent.
The national diesel tax is 24.4 cents per gallon, and for gasoline, the tax is 18.4 cents per gallon.
However, a growing number of lawmakers have been embracing a vehicle-miles-traveled fee and using infrastructure bank systems.
More recently, a funding option tossed around is to use savings from reforms at the U.S. Postal Service, something Orski called “highly unlikely.” Top congressional aides reportedly have indicated that using money from the termination of Saturday mail delivery to fund transportation programs could add hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years.
The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association has been prominent in its push for more tolls on U.S. highways.
However, there is more support for raising the fuel tax, said David Bauer, senior vice president at the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
“Sometime down the road, you’re going to have to look at some other type of mechanism that either augments fuel taxes or replaces them,” Bauer said.
Despite calls for higher fuel taxes, many lawmakers, especially transportation leaders, have been mindful that drivers are paying about $4 for a gallon of gas, and they assume voters are unwilling to stomach higher taxes at the pump.
