DALLAS -- A proposal by House Republican leadership to stop most Saturday mail deliveries and use the savings to fund federal highway spending through May 2015 has drawn criticism from left and right.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a memo distributed late last week to House Republicans that the proposal would save $10.7 billion over 10 years, enough to supplement the Highway Trust Fund into mid-2015 without drawing on general fund revenues.
The GOP proposal would keep federal highway funding at the 2014 level. The Highway Trust Fund, which supports federal transportation infrastructure spending, is expected to run dry in late July or early August due to anemic revenue from the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and the diesel tax of 24.4 cents per gallon.
The current two-year surface infrastructure bill, Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century, will expire Sept. 30 at the end of the federal fiscal year.
"We are preparing a proposal that would combine a move to modified six-day postal delivery along with a short-term extension of the highway bill that places the necessary resources into the [Highway] Trust Fund to prevent a disruption of highway projects," the GOP leaders said in the memo. "We firmly believe that this is the best way to ensure continued funding of highway projects in a fiscally responsible manner that implements a needed structural reform to a growing federal liability."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the GOP leaders' plan is "unworkable, makes no sense, and ignores the huge infrastructure needs we face, as so many bridges and roads are in grave disrepair."
Boxer is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has passed a $242 billion, six-year transportation bill that keeps federal highway funding at 2014 levels plus inflation through fiscal 2020.
"This plan is a classic example of House Republicans not planning for a shortfall we have known about for years," Boxer said. "It is 'the dog ate my homework' excuse."
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Ore., chairman of the transportation and infrastructure subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the House proposal will not solve the highway funding dilemma.
"It kicks the can down the road yet again on two pressing issues -- fixing the Postal Service and the Highway Trust Fund -- and fails to solve either problem," Carper said.
Dan Holler, communications director for the Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Congress should not supplement a depleted Highway Trust Fund by raiding the U.S. Postal Service, which posted deficits of $5 billion last year and $15.9 billion in fiscal 2012
"The idea Congress would use a supposedly self-funding agency that cannot pay its bills as a piggy bank to fund another bankrupt, self-funding fund is absurd," Holler said in a statement.
A total of $58 billion has been transferred from the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund since 2008 due to flat revenues from the gasoline tax. The Congressional Budget Office said last month that funding surface transportation programs at the 2014 level plus inflation would require an infusion of $18 billion in fiscal 2015 and between $13 billion and $18 billion through fiscal 2024.
The Transportation Department said relying solely on fuel tax revenues would not allow new projects to receive federal funding in fiscal 2015.
House rules require an offset if lawmakers shift money from the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund, the leaders said in the memo. With the fund expected to run dry before the August congressional recess, they said, quick action is required to allow a transfer before the end of fiscal 2014.
"Failing to provide additional funds would mean a disruption of ongoing construction projects—right in the midst of the construction season," the memo said.
"Given the limited window for action, we believe it is important that an offset be simple and have the support of the administration and Congressional Republicans," the leaders said.
Most of the expected savings would come from reducing the likelihood of a bailout of the Postal Service as a result of the on-going deficits, the memo said. Limiting Saturday service to first-class mail and medicine deliveries would put the Postal Service on a sounder fiscal basis, Boehner, Cantor, and McCarthy said.
A group of 220 representatives, including many Republicans, have co-sponsored a resolution supporting full mail service on Saturday.
Four postal unions have formed a coalition to fight the GOP proposal.
Frederic Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said the Postal Service should not be treated as a funding source for transportation projects.
"It's a political cop-out," Rolando said. "House GOP leaders want to raid the Postal Service because there is not enough money in the Highway Trust Fund to pay for projects they want to fund. Instead of making hard choices about highway spending in an election year, some in Congress would rather resort to accounting tricks."
Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on a Monday morning call-in show on the CSPAN cable channel that he does not expect lawmakers to pass a highway bill before November, but held out hope for action during the lame-duck session after the election.
"Congress will instead extend the current law through the election, and then come back in November and December and deal with what they have to do," said LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who headed the Transportation Department from 2009 to 2013. "It's a very lame way to run a transportation program."
