DALLAS — A bill introduced in the House on Thursday by a Kentucky Republican would strip funding from the Highway Trust Fund for mass transit and bike path projects.
Rep. Thomas Massie said the Developing Roadway Infrastructure for a Vibrant Economy Act of 2015, H.R. 1461, would keep the highway fund solvent without increasing the federal gasoline tax or other fees.
"Currently, gas tax revenue is diverted from the federal HTF for bike paths, sidewalks, mass transit, and other local projects," Massie said. "But due to inflation and fuel efficiency improvements of today's vehicles, there is no longer enough money in the HTF to maintain our nation's critical highways and bridges while also funding local projects that have no federal nexus."
The proposed DRIVE Act would cut federal transportation funding by more than $10 billion a year, Massie said.
"By eliminating diversion of gas tax revenues, the DRIVE Act ensures that the Highway Trust Fund can fulfill its namesake duty, to fund highways, without an increase in the gas tax rate," Massie said.
Public transit projects received $10.9 billion from the HTF in fiscal 2015, including $8.78 billion in formula allocations to states and local governments and $2.1 billion of competitive grants.
President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2016 would provide $18.2 billion for transit, including $3.25 billion of competitive grants.
Grants to states for bike paths, hiking trails, and other non-highway projects would total approximately $800 million of the $55 billion of federal transportation funding in fiscal 2015.
The transit account in the HTF receives 16% of the revenues from federal gasoline and diesel tax collections. The taxes generated $5 billion for transit in fiscal 2015.
The transit funding denial bill was dismissed as a political statement with no serious likelihood of passage by David Bauer, senior vice president for governmental relations at the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
"We reject any attempt to solve this nation's transportation problems by rationing funding," Bauer said. "The idea that what we need to do is to invest less is not a serious solution and will not get us where we need to go."
Transit has been part of the federal transportation funding mix for more than 30 years, he said, and that is not likely to change soon.
"It's been tried before, and those bills never got out of committee," Bauer said. "There are a lot of funding options out there, but this isn't one of them."
Efforts to cut federal transit funding are shortsighted, said Michael Meliphany, president of American Public Transit Association.
"Such an action would be catastrophic for public transportation systems nationwide and hurt the millions of Americans who use it every day in growing numbers," he said.
Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Service said, in its latest weekly credit outlook, that the lack of congressional action to extend the solvency of the HTF past the May 31 deadline of the latest short-term patch is credit negative for state grant anticipation revenue vehicles, or GARVEEs, which are supported by reimbursements from the federal fund.
"States are anticipating that there may be reimbursement delays and reductions, and are preparing to take actions to ensure sufficient funds are on hand to make required debt service payments," said analyst Julius Vizner.
Moody's downgraded most GARVEEs supported solely by the federal funds in June 2014.
Lack of agreement on a long-term source of federal transportation funding ensures another short-term extension will be needed when the current 10-month patch of the HTF ends, said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., at a hearing of House Appropriations Committee's transportation panel on Thursday.
"There seems to be no consensus of how we fund the infrastructure needs of this country," Price said. "We are probably therefore looking at another short-term extension until those issues can get worked out."
