DALLAS - The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee adopted a six-year, $275 billion federal highway funding bill Wednesday that puts the pressure on other congressional committees to find the additional revenues to support the measure.
The EPW Committee unanimously approved without amendment and sent to the Senate the proposed DRIVE Act, S. 1647, which was announced Tuesday by Chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the ranking minority member.
Quick passage of the multiyear funding measure is vital, Inhofe said.
"A solution is urgent, because today we quite literally sit at a crossroads," Inhofe said in his opening statement. "In order to repair deficient bridges, eliminate waste, and reduce congestion, Congress must act now and pass a long-term surface infrastructure solution."
The committee's proposal provides $42.9 billion per year for federal reimbursements from the Highway Trust Fund to states for road and bridge projects, up from $41 billion in fiscal 2015. The popular Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act low-interest loan program would be funded at $675 billion per year.
The EPW Committee has provided a policy framework for a Senate transportation funding bill and it is up to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee to find the $90 billion to $100 billion of new revenues for the six-year bill, Boxer said.
"We are serious about getting this done, and I hope that the momentum created by our action here today will encourage the other committees in the House and Senate to move quickly to act," said Boxer, who is retiring when her current term ends next year.
Responsibility for transportation funding is divided among several Senate committees. EPW handles highway policy, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is responsible for public transit systems, and the Commerce Committee oversees rail and buses.
Democrats on the committee would have preferred a larger increase in highway funding but conceded the point during negotiations, she said.
"When we cooperate and really negotiate, everybody has to give up a little and set their priorities," Boxer said. "I have been clear from the start that the Democratic Caucus would like to see an even more robust transportation bill, like the one President Obama has proposed."
Committee member Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., voted for the measure but said he would propose an amendment during the upcoming Senate debate to increase the funding to the $478 billion over six years proposed by President Obama in the Grow America Act.
The negotiations over the measure were contentious, Boxer said.
"We came close to ditching the whole thing last week, but we pulled it together," she said.
A multiyear surface transportation infrastructure measure needs to become law before the latest short-term patch of the HTF expires July 31, Boxer said.
"This bill comes not a minute too soon, because we are 38 days away from the expiration of the current highway program extension," she said.
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing Thursday that focuses on how states use public-private partnerships to finance public infrastructure, with testimony from Shailen P. Bhatt, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the finance panel is looking at various revenue options for generating the $90 billion of new revenue needed to support a multiyear transportation bill. Revenues dedicated to the HTF, including federal gasoline and diesel taxes, bring in about $40 billion a year while expenditures total more than $52 billion.
"I'm doing everything I possibly can," Hatch said. "We've got some ideas, but we'll just have to see."
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said the length of a transportation bill depends on how much revenue Hatch's committee can come up with to offset the HTF shortfall. A five-year bill could be accomplished with only $75 billion of new revenue, he said.
