WASHINGTON – House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leaders have introduced a bill that would extend transportation funding through Dec. 4 to give House and Senate conferees time to negotiate a multiyear measure.
"The House and Senate are making good progress in resolving differences between their respective multiyear transportation authorization proposals," committee chairman Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said in a release. "This clean extension provides time for that process to occur and for the House and Senate to vote on the final legislation without shutting down transportation programs and projects in the meantime."
The current short-term extension of transportation funding is slated to expire on Nov. 20.
Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx sent key House and Senate committee leaders a four-page letter and seven-page accompanying document asking for more funding in the multiyear transportation bill, overall and for popular loan and grant programs.
President Obama has proposed the six-year, $478 billion Grow America Act for transportation funding, Foxx noted. That compares to a $325 billion bill approved by the House bill and a $342 billion bill passed by the Senate.
"Funding levels in the House version [would] set the Nation on a course of worsening traffic and steadily deteriorating roadways," Foxx told the lawmakers in his letter. "While the Senate version importantly provides an increase over current funding levels, even more is needed to reverse the declining condition of our surface transportation system and enable improvement."
The Obama administration is particularly concerned that both bills would significantly cut funding for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) low-cost loan program, which is "a critical tool for financing roads, rails and other surface transportation projects that help move people and goods and grow our economy," Foxx said.
"Every dollar of federal funds can provide up to $10 in TIFIA credit assistance and leverage $30 in transportation infrastructure investment," he said.
The House bill would cut funding for the TIFIA program to $200 million per year from the $1 billion level in fiscal 2015. The Senate bill would fund the program at $300 million per year.
Foxx said these amounts would "hamstring" the program.
"The levels in these bills would be insufficient to sustain the TIFIA program at its current level of activity – much less manage the interest we are seeing in public-private partnerships," he said.
Foxx also complained about the lack of any funding or authorization for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER grant program. The president's proposed Grow America Act would provide $7.6 billion for the program over six years.
"TIGER provides a unique opportunity for the [Transportation] Department to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve national directives," said Foxx. "Since 2009, TIGER have provided nearly $4.6 billion to 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including 134 projects to support rural and tribal communities."
Demand for the TIGER grants have been overwhelming said Foxx, with the Transportation Department having received requests for more than $134 billion through the program's seven rounds.
Foxx also complained about many other cuts in the two bills. He said the proposed funding level for the Federal Highway Administration in the House bill would require the FHWA to reduce its current employment level, which has already been cut in recent years, by about 350 staff over six years.
