The House of Representatives something about this crisis now.” may have moved to plug the In June, an $8 billion infusion into the multibillion dollar gap in the Highway Trust Fund was removed from Highway Trust Fund by a veto- the Senate’s three-month extension of the proof majority last month, but Federal Aviation Administration, following don’t expect the Senate to have objections from Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. such an easy time. “Certainly it’s something we need to
Finding a means to stop the main fund deal with, but not as part of aviation bill,” that pays for the repair and construction he said.
of roads, bridges and other infrastructure Although there looks to be biparti-from going insolvent has become a politi- san recognition the trust fund’s loom-cal football of sorts, with everything from ing deficit needs to be fixed, the Bush the size of the deficit to the effect it will administration has threatened a veto of have on state spending in dispute.
For a transportation world that was frustrated by the two-year delay in getting the last national highway spending bill approved in Congress, the new holdup on a comparatively simple bit of stopgap funding sets an ominous tone heading into next year’s debate on the highway bill reauthorization.
“It seemed like such a logical thing to fix before it got caught up in the politics,” said C. Randall Mullet, Con-way’s vice president of government relations.
With congressional leaders planning on recessing at the end of September to pick up the campaign trail, as few as 12 legislative days could be left to tackle issues that include the completion of 12 appropriations bills.
The House voted 387-37 on July 23 for a stand-alone bill restoring $8 billion to the Highway Trust Fund by reversing a transfer made in 1998. But the Senate, which does not have stand-alone legislation addressing the issue, has had little luck.
The most recent efforts, a provision included in a tax bill that would have extended tax credits for renewable energy, failed July 30 after Republicans said the legislation was a distraction from lowering fuel prices.
“The American people are clamoring for legislation that would bring down high gas prices,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “They expect their representatives in Washington to do
the House’s fix, calling it “a gimmick and a dangerous precedent.”
The administration instead wants to borrow $3.2 billion from the federal mass transit account, an idea few lawmakers support.
The administration also contests just how dire the impact of the shortfall will be on state spending plans. After the American Association of State Highway Officials wrote a letter to all state transportation departments outlining how much funding their budgets would be cut if the shortfall wasn’t fixed, James D. Ray, the acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, penned a letter “to provide the facts.”
“States will not experience the dramatic job losses cited by AASHTO,” Ray wrote in a July 8 letter, also addressed to all state transportation departments.
“The actual effect of a cash shortfall in the highway account, should that occur, would be that FHWA would be unable to process
vouchers from states for highway projects in a highly expeditious manner,” Ray wrote, later adding the government’s interest in “sustainable financing alternatives” and other options must first be “clearly defined.”
AASHTO officials stand by their position, but Graham Hill, formerly a top Republican staffer for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the alarm bells were ill-timed.
“It came at a time when it was very politically unhelpful in terms of coming to agreement in the need for the Senate to close the shortfall,” he said.
The amount of deficit the fund faces at the end is also a matter of debate.
The Bush administration’s midyear budget review offered surprisingly good news that the trust fund’s deficit had declined to between $3.2 billion and $3.1 billion, a figure an AASHTO official called “subjective.”
Others went further privately, saying the administration was seeking to disguise the depth of the problem.
Additional estimates put out by the Office of Management and Budget next month are expected to be much larger, and some members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have said the deficit could be as large as $14 billion.
“This is not the time to reduce our pathetic investment in infrastructure,” said Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. “There are 150,000 structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges on our roads today, trucks are being rerouted because of weight restrictions, and people are wasting hours and high priced gas idling in traffic.”
But with the Senate getting into full election mode, some doubt fixing the Highway Trust Fund will be a top priority.
“Fixing this doesn’t get enough political points in November for them to spend time fixing it now,” said Con-way’s Mullett. “No one is going to vote for you or against you because you didn’t fix the Highway Trust Fund … unless states start laying off a whole bunch of workers.”
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