Senate Highway Plan Hits Wall as House Members Seek Short-Term Fix

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DALLAS - House members from both parties blasted the $317 billion six-year transportation funding proposal negotiated over the weekend by Senate leaders, casting doubt on the measure's fate in Congress.

The $47.5 billion of revenue offsets and other aspects of the bi-partisan Senate proposal ran into opposition in the House, which last week passed a five-month, $8.1 billion HTF extension to sustain federal funding of highway and transit projects through Dec. 18.

Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who co-sponsored the House's five-month extension proposal, said the Senate should pass the short-term patch rather than the multiyear bill.

Time is short because construction projects could come to a halt as the latest two-month federal transportation funding would expire July 31 without congressional action, he said.

"We've got a fix to get us through construction season," Shuster said of the House bill.

"If this [Senate] bill comes over and we take it, the House will not be able to speak," Shuster said. "That for me and I think for many, many of my colleagues is going to be a real problem, especially when you have a bill coming over here that's six years of policy that we can't talk on."

House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., criticized the Senate plan because it uses 10 years of offsets for three years of transportation funding and because it was presented for quick passage by McConnell and Boxer so close to the HTF deadline.

"I don't see the Senate [bill] flying in the House," McCarthy said. "I think it brings real doubt to a lot of people."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the short-term extension would give Congress time to agree on a fully funded multiyear transportation bill.

"I think the House passed a responsible approach last week to fund our highway programs through the end of this calendar year," Boehner said. "Obviously, the Senate feels otherwise. They've got a process underway and we'll see what happens."

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said several of the Senate bill's revenue provisions are unacceptable to his caucus. The offsets, also known as pay-fors, compensate for transfers of general revenue into the HTF that are needed because annual collections are some $15 billion less than expenditures.

"I've never seen a situation where there's been so much political angst about doing what we need to do to get people to pay for their use of our roads and highways and mass transit system," Becerra said.

Quick action is needed to get the measure out of the Senate and to the House before the end of the two-month HTF patch, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday morning. He said that another vote to bring the measure up for debate will be held Wednesday afternoon in hope of overcoming Tuesday's 56-41 rejection of plan to bring the bill up for debate.

"I regret that yesterday's procedural vote on the multiyear bipartisan highway bill was not successful," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "Some members said they wanted more time to review it before agreeing to talk about it, so we'll take that procedural vote again later today."

The Senate may be called into sessions this weekend to consider the bill if the procedural vote succeeds, he said.

The Senate bill would provide $257.5 billion for highways and $59.5 billion for public transit. Fully funding the entire six years would require $77 billion of additional revenue rather than the $47.5 billion in the measure, the Congressional Budget Office said.

 

 

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