The bipartisan hug that ended Wednesday’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s unanimous approval of a five-year highway bill might best summarize how progress on infrastructure is being made.
Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., and ranking Republican Sen. Shelly Moore Capito abandoned what recently had been COVID-19 social distancing protocols to embrace to celebrate the 20-0 vote immediately after the meeting ended.
Both said they hope the $304.5 billion highway section can pave the way for further bipartisan agreement on a wider-ranging infrastructure package.
That infrastructure package could be a bonanza for the municipal bond sector. Among the most likely financing tools would be reinstatement of tax-exempt advance refunding bonds, direct-pay Build America Bonds and an increased limit on tax-exempt bank qualified debt to $30 million for nonprofit borrowers.
Wednesday’s action in the Senate was described by Carper with a Winston Churchill quote as being “the end of the beginning.”
He credited the progress as a result of communication and compromise and called on three other Senate committees to complete their parts of a Highway Trust Fund reauthorization with sections covering rail, transit and revenue.
Capito, who is the lead Senate Republican in talks with President Biden, said she was “absolutely thrilled” about the highway bill because it “proves we can come together.”
“As many of you know, there has been a lot of talk about a lot of a larger bipartisan agreement,” Capito said.
She added later in the session that the agreement contains a “very, very significant” boost in highway
funding by 34% from the level agreed to in the last reauthorization under the FAST Act.
But Capito explained she is not willing to support a proposal by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., to boost it an additional 25%.
Instead, Capito described the $304.5 billion agreement on highways as “the anchor” for the continuing bipartisan discussions.
Capito said 90% of the money in the overall bill would be through state formulas benefiting both rural and urban areas.
It also would codify the “one federal decision’’ initiative for streamlining federal approvals.
Capito joined all but one other Republican in opposing the one amendment that was brought to a vote and passed 11-9 to add $200 million annually, or $1 billion over five years, for connecting bicycle trails and pedestrian paths to other parts of the transportation system.
That bipartisan amendment came from Sens. John Markey, D-Mass., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
Sullivan suggested a further bipartisan agreement to increase funding might be possible if it involves paying for the resources needed to shorten the timeframe for completing federal reviews of projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, also known as NEPA.
“I think there's a big potential bipartisan compromise, perhaps more funding for much more aggressive, permanent reforms, and I think that can be a bipartisan way to address some of these issues,” Sullivan said.
The bipartisan bill includes an $18 billion climate title geared toward reducing carbon emissions. It includes $500 million to mitigate climate impacts on the most vulnerable communities and another $500 million to upgrade transportation infrastructure to withstand climate change.
Another part of the climate title includes $2.5 billion for building electric vehicle charging and hydrogen fueling stations on highways and in locations like schools, workplaces, parks, and publicly accessible areas for communities.
The $2.5 billion for charging stations is well below the goal set by Biden whose American Jobs Plan calls for spending $15 billion to build a national network of 500,000 charging stations by 2030.
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the highway bill as a model approach for building “a successful big picture infrastructure bill later this year.”
McConnell said the administration faces a choice between “a lonely road leading to the far left versus a mainstream bipartisan road leading straight ahead toward practical policies that make Americans’ lives actually better.”
