Boxer Warns Of Rail Shutdown Over Highway Bill

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DALLAS -- Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is warning Republican leaders in the House that they must deal quickly with the Senate’s six-year, $360 billion transportation bill or face a nationwide rail shutdown at the end of the year.

But other lawmakers and transportation experts don’t think Congress has the time to pass a long-term bill before the current extension of transportation funding expires on Oct. 29.

“I am asking that the House go to conference with the Senate so that we can work out our differences and get a bill to the President’s desk,” Boxer said in a floor speech on Wednesday.  “The House can use a number of procedural tools to go to conference with the Senate, or they could make modifications to the DRIVE Act and we can go to conference on that.”

The DRIVE Act, H.R. 22, which the Senate passed in late July, would extend a moratorium on mandated railroad safety equipment that Boxer said House leaders want to adopt as separate legislation or include in another short-term highway funding extension.

The Senate bill would extend until 2018 the current Jan. 1 deadline for railroads to implement positive train control systems and provide $200 million of grants and loans to local commuter rail operators for the mandated collision avoidance equipment.

The Federal Railroad Administration said in August that it would levy daily fines of up to $25,000 per violation if railroads have not added the safety systems by the Jan. 1 deadline. Widespread noncompliance is expected, it said.

The American Chemistry Council said a potential shutdown by railroads to avoid the FRA fines could result in $30 billion of economic losses and the elimination of 700,000 jobs.

“I understand that many have argued that addressing the approaching PTC deadline is extremely critical, and failing to do so will have dramatic financial consequences,” Boxer said. “But you know what? There are a lot of issues addressed in the DRIVE Act that are critically important and that have financial ramifications on this country.

“I will oppose any attempts to cherry-pick issues and deal with them outside of the long-term bill,” Boxer said.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will not be able to complete its version of a multiyear highway bill and then work out any differences with the Senate before the current 90-day funding extension expires, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the ranking Democrat on the panel.

“The hope is to do the authorizing language the last week of October,” DeFazio told reporters on Wednesday. “I think we’re marking up the day before, so I don’t think we’ll have conference with the Senate in 24 hours.”

Lawmakers are unlikely to make progress on the DRIVE Act by the end of October, with passage of any multiyear bill in 2015 increasingly in doubt, said transportation funding consultant Jack Basso.

“It’s all about the revenue needed to get a six-year bill and I don’t see much movement on that,” said Basso, former director of program finance and management at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “I hope I’m wrong.”

Leadership elections in the House and the consideration of controversial issues probably will delay action on a transportation bill into November at the earliest, said Stephen Davis, communications director of the Transportation For America advocacy group.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who had been the lead candidate to succeed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, when Boehner resigns from Congress at the end of the month, said Thursday he will not seek the position.

 “House leadership turnover certainly won't help speed things up, and the House already has a docket full of contentious agenda items,” Davis said. “It's entirely possible that any House action on a multiyear bill could come after the deadline. Once again, we could see another extension.” 

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