Senate Leaders Back 18-Month Extension Of Transit Law
The Senate starting today is poised to officially back the Obama administration's request to extend federal surface transportation law through March 2011, despite concern that such a delay in seeking a six-year bill could jeopardize potential jobs and investments.
Both Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and ranking member James Inhofe are backing an 18-month extension of current law that is "clean" -- devoid of any new policy criteria -- that the panel will vote on this morning.
"I think what we're doing is best for the economy and is true to fiscal responsibility," Boxer said. Senate Majority Leader Reid also appears to be on board. A spokesman for Inhofe said, "We're aiming for 18 months" but added that it might take even longer to finish a bill.
Stakeholders Told Cover Is Needed For Revenue Raisers
The chief architect of House Democrats' 2008 electoral gains recently had a blunt message for supporters of a multiyear surface transportation funding bill: Don't count on Democrats alone to fall on their swords for gasoline or other tax increases to pay for it. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland "laid out political reality" at a June 26 meeting with about 75 transportation lobbyists and stakeholders, sources familiar with the event said.
The message was that "unless groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are willing to provide political cover so members know they are not going to get absolutely skewered ... there is no way we can talk about a revenue solution," according to one attendee. "Support is going to have to come from both the left and the right."
Panel Weighs $500B Authorization Bill
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leaders in both parties have outlined a blueprint for an ambitious $500 billion, six-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that they want to bring to the House floor before August. An 80-page outline -- expected to be one-tenth of the size of the 800-page bill -- was not available at presstime.
But Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar and Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., held a briefing Wednesday on its parameters. It seeks to significantly restructure the Transportation Department and its scores of programs but does not spell out the thorny issue of how to finance a bill roughly two-thirds larger than current law.
Upcoming Authorization Bill Faces Both Fiscal, Philosophical Hurdles
The next multiyear update to surface transportation law is ideally right around the corner this fall. But historical struggles and those brought on by present economic woes suggest there will be roadblocks.
Lawmakers have a difficult task in getting President Obama the next six-year reauthorization bill before current law expires at the end of September. Congress does not have a stellar record of meeting deadlines. The last reauthorization bill, a $286.4 billion product finished in 2005, took almost two extra years to finish.