DALLAS — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is urging voters to press lawmakers for a long-term solution to federal highway funding before the end of 2014, but industry experts don't expect Congress to take action until spring 2015 at the earliest.
Congress passed a measure late last week keeping the Highway Trust Fund solvent through May 31, 2015, Foxx said Wednesday at an on-line town hall meeting. The bill, which President Obama had still not signed as of late Wednesday, will delay but not avert a funding crisis.
"Americans are going to have to speak up to get something done here," Foxx said. "We are going to have to help Congress act, and hopefully act quickly."
Action is needed before the end of the year, he said, because the new Congress convening in January will face a crowded agenda.
President Obama's Grow America Act, or something modeled on it, could be taken up and passed quickly, Foxx said.
The president's $302 billion, four-year proposal would allocate $199 billion to highways and $72 billion for transit. "Congress can't afford to sit on its hands until May 2015, which would likely result in more short-term fixes," he said.
The 302-day Highway Trust Fund extension in the bailout bill all but ensures the current Congress will not adopt multi-year legislation in 2014, said David Goldberg, communications director at the advocacy group Transportation For America. The new Congress will be hard pressed to agree on a long-term, fully funded transportation program in its first five months, he said, increasing the chances for a series of short-term extensions.
"Congress has given itself a tall order by taking on the major tasks of finding a long-term revenue fix and updating the underlying investment policy early in a new term," Goldberg said.
"It remains to be seen whether the new Congress will be willing to make raising the gas tax one of its first orders of business," Goldberg said. "However, if the alternative is to become the first Congress in 60 years to wreck the nation's key infrastructure program, perhaps they will find a way."
Last week's short-term patch of the highway fund averted an economic calamity for only a few more months, said Randall Over, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, but that gives Congress the opportunity to find a sustainable funding solution before the end of the year.
Lawmakers should return from their August recess ready to fund increased investment in transportation infrastructure, Over said.
"There is adequate time before Congress adjourns in 2014 to identify long-term, sustainable funding sources for the nation's surface transportation program," he said. "We shouldn't wait until May 2015 to solve America's infrastructure problems."
An Associated Press-GfK poll released earlier this week found an increase in the gasoline tax for construction and upkeep of public roads was opposed by 58%, with only 14% supporting a higher gasoline tax.
Lowering the federal gasoline tax and giving the states more responsibility for highway and transit spending was supported by 30% of the 1,004 voters polled, with 22% opposed and 46% having no opinion.
Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, now a co-chairman for Building America's Future, said hopes for a highway bill in 2014 have evaporated.
"The only way that could get done in a lame-duck session is if they raise the gasoline tax," Rendell said. "I don't think there is any consensus on that right now."
Voters would support a higher gasoline tax if they can be assured the revenue will go to highways and transit, he said. "Everybody talks about how much highway funding costs, but the cost of doing nothing is even more expensive," he said. "Think about how much gasoline is wasted by cars sitting in traffic.
