DALLAS - A bipartisan federal transportation funding proposal unveiled Tuesday by leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee would provide some $270 billion for highways through fiscal 2021.
Committee chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said the proposed DRIVE (Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy) Act would provide the current level of funding and increase allocations 3% per year over the six years.
The proposal provides for $43 billion a year of federal highway funding with $675 million a year of Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans. Tribal and federal land road programs would receive $1.3 billion per year and the U.S. Parks Service would receive $250 million per year for surface transportation projects.
The multiyear span of the bill will allow state transportation officials to plan for major projects, he said.
"Our nation's roads and highways have suffered under too many short-term extensions, which have led to higher costs, more waste, and less capability to prioritize major modernization projects to address growing demands on our interstates," Inhofe said.
The proposal also includes a new freight infrastructure program and special funding efforts to modernize bridges and maintain the interstate highway system, he said.
The bill could be passed and sent to the president for his signature this summer, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the Senate panel.
The DRIVE Act will be considered by the full committee at a hearing on Wednesday with a vote sometime next week, Boxer said.
"There will be no vote this week," she said. "This is just to lay it out, and what a wonderful start it is."
Members of both parties are eager to pass a multiyear transportation funding bill, Boxer said.
"The pressure is on Republicans and Democrats alike," she said. "This needs to be done, and that's why I'm optimistic."
The committee's proposal outlines federal transportation policy without providing a source for the additional revenue needed to bolster the HTF, Boxer said.
Senate Democrats have agreed on repatriation taxes on corporate overseas earnings as the best revenue solution for transportation, "but there are 10 different ways we can get there," Boxer said.
Quick action in Congress could result in passage of a multiyear transportation bill before the current two-month extension expires July 31, Boxer said.
"The clock is ticking, and action in the EPW Committee is a major first step," she said. "The other committees also need to act."
Total federal transportation funding in fiscal 2015 of $55 billion includes $41 billion for highways and $11 billion for public transit from the Highway Trust Fund. The DRIVE Act doesn't include transit funding.
The Senate Finance Committee is responsible for finding the additional billions of revenue to fund highway projects, the Committee on Banking and Public Affairs will develop the transit portion of Senate's surface transportation infrastructure bill, and the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has jurisdiction over federal transportation safety programs.
Boxer and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have proposed a voluntary corporate tax repatriation measure to fund transportation. President Obama's six-year, $478 billion Grow America Act would be supported with $240 billion of HTF revenues and $238 billion from a mandatory tax on overseas corporate earnings.
The Transportation Department notified state officials late last week that federal reimbursements for state road and transit projects will be delayed beginning Aug. 1 if the HTF is not replenished with additional revenues.
