DALLAS — Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., pressed his Republican colleagues in the House to get serious soon about a multiyear transportation funding bill if they hope to avoid disruptions to highway and transit projects before the end of the year.
Failure of the House to act before the current 90-day extension of federal transportation funding expires on Oct. 29 would require another in a long series of quick fixes to the Highway Trust Fund, Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a release on Wednesday.
“I fear that the prospect of Congress securing a six-year reauthorization bill becomes dimmer if we are forced to consider a 35th short-term extension,” he said. “If the House is serious about addressing highways, I urge the appropriate committees to take public action to advance the policy and funding aspects of this legislation.”
Inhofe said he was heartened by the commitment to a six-year surface transportation infrastructure bill made on Tuesday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who may be chosen to succeed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, when Boehner retires from Congress at the end of the October. The leadership vote is set for Oct. 8.
"In the midst of leadership changes in the House, America cannot afford for transportation to go by the wayside,” Inhofe said. “This issue cannot be shelved until these leadership positions are likely solidified in November.”
The $8.1 billion of general revenues transferred into the Highway Trust Fund by the 90-day measure would keep it afloat past Oct. 29, Inhofe said, but states would feel the pinch of reduced reimbursements if cash balances in the highway fund hits a critical threshold by Thanksgiving as Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx predicted last month.
“The next four weeks provides ample time to get this accomplished so that the HTF does not have to hit a dangerous low during the holidays,” Inhofe said. “A failure to deliver a solution will only make it more expensive and challenging for states and industry to plan for next year’s projects.”
The Senate passed the six-year DRIVE Act (H.R. 22), which was developed by Inhofe’s committee in late July using the shell of a House bill introduced in January, a few hours before adopting the House proposal for a 90-day extension of the HTF. The Senate proposal is fully funded only in the first three years of the six-year program with $47 billion of revenue offsets to supplement the $40 billion or so generated per year by federal gasoline and diesel taxes and other levies dedicated to the HTF. House leaders have balked at the lack of full funding and some of the revenue offsets in the Senate plan.
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he will present a multiyear bill to the panel when Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, determines how to cover the HTF’s $15 billion per year revenue gap.
Ryan is close to a decision, Shuster said.
“What we need is an outline of funding,” Shuster told reporters on Tuesday. “It may be a few hours away, or a few days. [Ryan] is dealing with House Democrats and Senate Democrats."
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the House Rules Committee, said a House bill should be ready before the Oct. 29 deadline.
“The hope is that we would have a highway bill by the middle of October,” Sessions said. “That’s the plan we’re attempting to work off of.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said on Wednesday that talks are under way about whether to resolve the HTF shortfall with revenues from revisions to the international tax code. Hatch, who is skeptical of the proposal, said he expects a decision soon on whether to continue the discussions.
