WASHINGTON/DALLAS - While many lawmakers, industry and administration officials are pushing for a long-term transportation bill, it may not be possible for Congress to approve one by May 31, when the current funding law expires.
That seemed to the sentiment or at least concern, of some individuals at a legislative conference held by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and a hearing held by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday.
One key problem is lack of agreement of a funding source as the Highway Trust Fund is running out of revenue. However, some members of the Senate committee seemed to coalesce around the idea of increases in federal taxes on gasoline and diesel for funding.
In an apparent effort to make the idea more palatable to opponents to tax increases, committee chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said during the hearing, "Let's stop the talk around here that it's a gasoline tax. It's a user fee."
"That was the original sin, in my opinion," said Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in San Francisco Bay, told the panel. "It was the wrong label to use."
Inhofe said the committee is developing a transportation bill, but that it is up to the Senate Budget and Finance Committees to come with a revenue source. The House Ways and Means Committee will play a key role in the House.
The Senate Finance Committee has set up a series of working groups on tax reform, including one on "infrastructure and community development" but it is not expected to submit a report to committee leaders until May, according to a rough calendar for the groups.
Sen. Barbara Boxer from California, who formerly chaired the committee and is now its top Democrat, said at the hearing that she is frustrated by the lackadaisical attitude in Congress and lack of progress on a multiyear transportation measure by other committees in the House.
"The only action I see is from this committee," she said. "Where is everybody else?"
She said the committee developed a six-year highway bill in 2014 when she was chairman but got no response from the House Ways and Means Committee or anybody else.
"They all say they want to do something, but they all said that the last time, and we got stuck with this little extension," she said. "We passed a good bill then and we're working on a good bill now."
Boxer warned that if there is no progress soon on a long-term measure she will call for a bipartisan event in April to show support for a multiyear highway bill before the May 31 deadline.
"We need to stand together to show everyone the desperate situation we're in," she said.
"What I see coming is another extension," Boxer said. "That is absurd and it will be expensive."
During an AASHTO panel, Jack Schenendorf, of counsel at Covington & Burling, said "it may be difficult to get the transportation bill across the goal line by May 31" and that he would not be surprised if Congress was only able to pass a short-term extension of highway funding by then.
Nevada Department of Transportation director Rudy Malfabon, an attendee, said during the meeting that he thinks there will be a short-term bill, but hopes there is a long-term one later this year.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said at the meeting that a short-term bill is not a certainty. "It's not inevitable," he said. "When folks' minds get fixed around a major problem, things can happen very quickly in Washington."
While Foxx said there are "transportation timing issues with the May 31st date approaching," he also said, "I don't want to negotiate against a longer-term bill by making any statements that an extension is a good thing."
He added that there have been many short-term measures in the past several years. "I think the preference is for Congress to figure it out as quickly as possible," he said.
Meanwhile, Senators as well as witnesses at the hearing promoted the idea of increases in federal taxes on gasoline and diesel as best solution for a means of resolving the chronic revenue shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, which supports most federal transportation grants to the states. None raised any opposition to the idea.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he would support a higher gasoline tax, but only if the increase is offset by tax cuts on middle-class families.
Vitter, chairman of the subcommittee on transportation and infrastructure, said a gas tax increase is one of the viable funding options that could be approved by Congress before the latest extension of the HTF expires May 31.
"Let's cut to the chase and avoid pie-in-the-sky solutions," he said. "May isn't that far away."
In addition to increasing the federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel, Vitter's list of revenue options include reform of the federal income tax on the foreign earnings by U.S. companies, and expanded oil and gas production on federal lands, with the lease fees and royalty payments dedicated to transportation.
A higher gasoline tax could be offset that with a tax credit for middle-class families, said Boxer, who is not seeking reelection in 2016.
Boxer said raising the federal tax on fuels by 6 cents per gallon would resolve the revenue shortfall in the HTF at a cost to the average motorist of approximately $36 a year.
A 4% federal sales tax on new and used cars and trucks could bring in $89 billion over six years for the HTF, she said.
Heminger said doubling the current federal fuel taxes would generate more than $30 billion a year while costing the average motorist about 30 cents per day.
