DALLAS — The Senate adopted legislation late Tuesday that would provide a five-month, $8 billion bailout of the Highway Trust Fund after rejecting a House proposal for an $11 billion, 10-month patch that would have extended the fund's solvency through May 2015.
The Senate swapped the House plan for the short-term fix approved by the Senate Finance Committee in mid-July, and then took out $2.7 billion of proposed revenue from pension smoothing. Senators also replaced the May 2015 deadline with a provision keeping the fund functional through only Dec. 19.
Senators rejected an amendment from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to phase out the federal gas tax and turn transportation funding over to the states, and another one from Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to limit environmental reviews of highway and bridge disaster replacement projects.
An extension of the almost-insolvent Highway Trust Fund must be put into place before Congress breaks at the end of this week for a five-week August recess.
The Transportation Department has warned states to expect a 28% cut in federal reimbursements if the HTF cash balance hits $4 billion. The curtailments and delays in payments for on-going projects are set to begin Aug. 1.
The House could amend the Senate version and send it back to the upper chamber or it could follow the Senate lead and substitute its original measure for the legislation passed Tuesday by the Senate.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House will simply not adopt the Senate plan, with funding that includes $4.2 billion generated through enhanced enforcement of existing tax laws.
"I just want to make clear, if the Senate sends a highway bill over here with those provisions, we're going to strip it out and put the House-passed provisions back in and send it back to the Senate," he said Tuesday.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who co-sponsored the amendment doing away with the pension-smooth revenue and setting the December deadline, said the House should accept the Senate revisions.
"By an overwhelming vote, the Senate agreed to extend surface transportation programs until Dec.19th, which will ensure that the Congress comes together as soon as possible to put together a multi-year bill," she said.
"Our bill also turns away from smoke and mirrors by doing away with 'pension smoothing,' which is a dangerous gimmick that could lead to pensions being underfunded," she said after the vote.
The revised bill was adopted in the Senate by a 79-18 vote. The amendment sponsored by Boxer, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Rep. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., which shorted the time frame and removed pension smoothing revenues, passed by a 66-31 vote.
Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Congress will agree on a short-term extension before the trust fund goes broke.
"I've said from the very beginning we aren't going to let the clock run out and we're gonna get this done and I plan to talk to the House leadership on both sides as soon as possible," he said. "To get to a long-term plan, what's needed first is a short-term path so that you do not have the transportation equivalent of a government shutdown."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who co-sponsored the amendment substituting the Senate plan for the House proposal, said he expects the House bill to be the final version that Congress will send to President Obama. The House legislation, HR 5021, is sponsored by Rep. Dave Camp., R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
"I think the likelihood is that the Camp bill has got to be the final bill," Hatch said following Tuesday's Senate vote. "I can live with that."
