Ways and Means committee puts Oberstar's highway bill on hold for health legislation
Katelyn Ferral and Kevin Bogardus | The Hill | July 8, 2009
You can find the original article here.
Rep. Jim Oberstar's (D-Minn.) ambitious plan to finish a new highway bill before the end of year is running into a roadblock of his party's own making: the massive overhaul of the nation's healthcare system.
The House Ways and Means Committee is swamped with healthcare, President Obama's highest legislative priority. That means the panel doesn't have the time to work on tax measures that would pay for the $500 billion highway bill that otherwise falls under the purview of Oberstar's Transportation Committee.
"You have to believe me. Everything I am doing is health, health and health," Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) told The Hill. He said he can't yet talk about how to fund the highway bill, but added that "it is very important and it's on the front burner."
Several of Rangel's colleagues on the panel were less optimistic, and cast doubt on whether the committee had time for another large undertaking this year given their responsibility on healthcare.
Many adamantly oppose increasing the gas tax to pay for the dwindling highway trust fund, which pays for rail and road projects in Oberstar's proposed six-year highway bill. Others said they did not have time to consider the bill.
"I don't know what we are going to do with it," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), another panel member. "I'm preoccupied with how we are going to pay for healthcare reform."
Oberstar has clashed with the White House on when to move his bill. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has called for an 18-month extension of the current law instead of approving a new law, but Oberstar has rejected that approach.
"Chairman Oberstar wants the bill to move forward as soon as possible," said Jim Berard, spokesman for the House Transportation Committee. "We have to wait for the House Ways and Means Committee to ready the revenue title of the bill. Once they are ready, we will move."
Oberstar has asked Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) to work with Ways and Means on finding government revenue to pay for the bill. DeFazio has proposed a transaction tax on crude-oil securities to fund the new highway bill.
One Ways and Means member, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), came out with a series of proposals in February to increase funding for national transportation infrastructure projects.
In discussions with Rangel and other panel members, Blumenauer has explored a 10-year strategy that would bring transportation financing to $600 billion for the next authorization period. His plan would repeal the gas tax, and instead pay for transportation projects with carbon taxes and a road-use fee, among other items.
But several committee members still seem pessimistic about moving the transportation legislation this year. Many agreed with Lewis in saying healthcare reform is taking precedence over anything else on the committee's agenda.
"It's fair to say the priority of the House Ways and Means Committee is healthcare reform, not the highway bill," said Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.).
Davis said he would like to see the highway bill move forward this year but is concerned about how best to raise federal funds to pay for the legislation.
"I would rather see a highway bill put off than have a tax increase on my constituents who are unemployed and struggling to make ends meet," said Davis, who is running for Alabama governor in 2010.
Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) said the gas tax in its present form is "unsustainable." But he said the Ways and Means panel is "100 percent focused on healthcare reform. We need to get that thing passed."
Republicans on Ways and Means are opposed to any measure that would increase taxes to provide additional funding for the highway bill.
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) said that given the nation's high unemployment rate, raising any tax to pay for the highway bill would be the wrong thing to do. He suggested focusing on incentive programs that would get motorists to carpool, rather than raising taxes to fund new road projects.
Reichert also said he hoped the highway bill would be passed sooner rather than later.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is also opposed to any tax increases, including raising the gas tax, to shore up deficient funding for the highway bill. He said the current form of the legislation is bogged down by unnecessary earmarks.
"We need to focus the bill back to basics: highway and mass-transit funding," Ryan said. "No non-highway use provisions."
The Ways and Means panel's ranking member is on the same page.
"We are waiting to see what the majority comes up with, but a gas tax is a bad idea. We shouldn't make the drive to work more expensive for those lucky enough to have a job in this economy," said Sage Eastman, press secretary for Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.).
Democrats on the committee are also reluctant to raise the gas tax.
"When you start talking about taxes, everybody starts to run when you look at any kind of increase," said Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.).
Davis said that the committee has been so focused on healthcare that it has not started talking about how to pay for the highway bill. When asked whether he expects the committee to discuss the legislation's funding before the August recess, Davis appeared doubtful.
"I personally don't see when they would," Davis said.