Ads Target House Republicans on Long-Term Transportation Bill

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DALLAS — A consortium of transportation advocacy groups has targeted 16 Republican members of two key House committees with radio advertisements urging quick passage of a multiyear highway and transit bill when Congress returns after Labor Day from its month-long August recess.

The 30-second ads from the Transportation Construction Coalition will run through next week on the hometown stations of members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Coalition officials said the ad campaign and grass-roots efforts by local contractors will continue until the House passes a long-term transportation bill.

Congress approved a 90-day extension of federal transportation funding in late July to maintain reimbursements to states for highway and transit projects through Oct. 29. The $8.1 billion of general revenues transferred by the short-term fix should keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent until mid-December.

The broadcasts are limited to Republican representatives, said Eileen Houlihan, a spokeswoman for coalition member American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

"The reality is Republicans are the majority party in the House and will be the ones we need to get the attention of in order to get a long-term bill passed," she said.

"We also don't have unlimited funds for this, or any other campaign, and had to limit those we targeted to where we felt it would make the most impact," Houlihan said. "That also meant whittling down a larger list to include media markets that may have been less expensive than some of the larger markets."

ARTBA and the American Public Transit Association sponsored a similar ad campaign earlier this year that targeted House and Senate leaders of both parties.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, leads the list of Republicans being targeted by the ad campaign. Ryan's committee will be responsible for coming up with up to $90 billion or so of additional revenues needed to supplement the gasoline tax and other levies in a six-year bill.

The other representatives include Rick Crawford, R-Ark., Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Garret Graves, R-La., Jason Smith, R-Mo., Adrian Smith, R-Neb., Mark Meadows, R-N.C., George Holdings, R-N.C., David Rouzer, R-N.C., Mark Sanford, R-S.C., Kristi Noem, R-S.D., Diane Black, R-Tenn., Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, and Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Tuesday in Oklahoma City that most of the opposition to a multiyear highway bill passed by the Senate is coming from his fellow Republicans.

The Senate in late July passed and sent to the House the multiyear, partially funded DRIVE Act that was developed by Inhofe's committee. It would provide $273.4 billion of federal highway funding and $74.9 billion of transit funding over six years, but only includes $45 billion of supplemental revenues for the first three years.

Republican lawmakers and conservative organizations have unfairly criticized the DRIVE Act for political reasons, Inhofe said.

"We have a lot of organizations that will score votes and because this is a big spending bill. They will score it and say who will vote against it," he said.

"I hate to say this about my fellow Republicans, they all know what I'm saying," Inhofe said. "They know this is a conservative report, but they still get down there and demagogue on the floor because some people are scoring the vote."

The House will be receptive to the Senate proposal when it begins developing a transportation bill next month, Inhofe said, based on discussions he had with Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

"He's very excited about our bill," Inhofe said. "Shuster likes our bill, and I think the transportation bill coming out of the House will be very similar to the Senate's."

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