House Sends Its Original HTF Bill Back to Senate

boehnerjohn-bl093013.jpg

DALLAS — The House rejected the Senate's amendments to its $10.8 billion, 10-month bailout of the Highway Trust Fund on Thursday afternoon and sent its original bill back to the Senate.

Lawmakers were to leave for a five-week recess after the House vote, but Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said additional votes may be needed on a supplemental border appropriations bill.

The Senate is expected Thursday late afternoon or evening to vote on whether to approve the revived House proposal instead of the $8.1 billion, five-month fund patch it adopted earlier this week.

Without the extension, federal transportation reimbursements to states for on-going transportation projects will be curtailed and delayed beginning Friday, the Transportation Department said. The rationing will be triggered when the Highway Trust Fund hits a $4 billion cash balance threshold.

The House vote to reject the Senate version was 272 to 150, with two Republicans joining the 148 Democrats who wanted that version to prevail.

A $2 billion mistake in the Senate bill involving the revenue that would be generated to compensate in part for a $7.2 billion transfer from the general fund sealed its fate in the House. Both bailout proposals include a $1 billion transfer from an underground storage tank fund.

The Senate bill, adopted Tuesday night, would extend the fund's solvency through Dec. 19. However, the Congressional Budget Office said the bill, which was expected to generate $2.9 billion from customs fees, would actually only generate $994 million in such fees.

Rep. Dave Camp., R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who sponsored the House bailout bill, said that, as a result of the glitch, the Senate bill would give the HTF a few extra weeks of solvency. "That [$6.2 billion] will get us to early October," Camp said. "The needs are dire, but we've got to get past October,"

Camp blamed these last minute actions on the Senate. He noted that after the House passed its extension bill on July 15, the Senate did not act until the August recess was less than 48 hours away.

"It's because of this rush that drafting errors were made," Camp said. "We need to send this back to the Senate."

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Tom Carper, D-Del., said the revenue miscalculation was a technical error that could have been easily remedied in the House. The rules adopted by House leadership allow lawmakers to amend the faulty language.

"The Senate has already corrected a much more drastic error in the House's bill — one that could have blown an $11 billion hole in the federal budget — by unanimous consent," Boxer and Carper said in a joint release.

The House passed a $10.8 billion rescue plan July 15 that keeps the fund solvent through May 31, 2015. The shorter Senate deadline would require Congress to pass a long-term transportation bill during a post-election session.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said the extension into 2015 is meant to avoid political pressures during a lame-duck session.

"Don't play politics with transportation," Shuster said during the floor debate.

President Obama in a speech Wednesday night in Kansas City called on Congress to adopt a short-term fix before the August recess begins.

"We've got just today and tomorrow until Congress leaves town for a month, and we've still got some serious work to do," he said. "We've still got to put people to work rebuilding roads and bridges."

When Congress reconvenes after Labor Day, it will be in session for a total of 16 days before breaking for the November election.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Infrastructure Transportation industry
MORE FROM BOND BUYER