DALLAS — The draft transportation bill released by a key Senate committee falls far short of funding needs by proposing only $242.4 billion for road projects over six years, administration officials and highway industry experts are warning.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released the bill Monday night and plans to vote on it Thursday morning. The legislation would keep federal funding for highways at fiscal 2014 levels plus inflation through fiscal 2020 and would provide $1 billion a year for the popular Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act credit enhancement program.
But Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Monday that the bill would not adequately fund surface transportation infrastructure. "We cannot meet the needs of a growing country and a growing economy by simply maintaining our current level of effort," he said. "We must do more."
President Obama's highway bill proposes $199 billion for highway projects over four years. Called the Grow America Act, it would also fund TIFIA at $1 billion a year.
"Even if Congress today funded our transportation system at recent levels, we'd still be on the same track," Foxx said. "We'd still be on the track towards a slower, less safe nation where rush hour becomes rush all afternoon."
In a speech on Tuesday, Foxx said, "Right now our proposal is the best way to thread the needle and get something done."
Foxx told state transportation officials last week that reimbursements for highway and transit projects will be delayed this summer unless Congress bolsters the Highway Trust Fund. "The highway account of the trust fund is likely to dip below the critical $4 billion funding level as soon as July, and transit account will fall below $1 billion sometime in October," Foxx said in the May 7 letter.
The American Trucking Associations also think the Senate committee bill is under-funded, though it is pleased with the proposal for a new freight program that starts at $400 million in fiscal 2015 and tops out at $2 billion in 2020, said Sean McNally, vice president of communications for the group.
"We would prefer significantly higher funding levels, but we recognize the political barriers involved in finding those revenues. However, we hope that Congress will recognize the need for greater investment and provide additional resources as the reauthorization process moves forward," McNally said in a release.
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association also approved of the dedicated freight program but criticized the Senate committee's draft legislation for not allowing states to put tolls on existing interstate highways as would Obama's proposal.
"Given the Senate bill would essentially hold investment constant for the next six years, we are disappointed they did not provide states additional options to advance projects by eliminating needless restrictions on tolling," said Beth McGinn, director of public affairs at the contractors association.
The Senate committee's draft bill extends provisions of the current highway bill, Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century or MAP-21, but adds several new grant programs and streamlines the permitting process for federally funded projects. MAP-21 will expire on Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2014.
The proposed highway bill follows the outline of an agreement on transportation funding announced in April by committee chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., ranking Republican member Sen. David Vitter, from Louisiana, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
A separate bill for funding mass transit programs is to be developed by the Senate Banking Committee. And the Senate Finance committee must find a way to fund the bill, which has a built-in deficit of billions of dollars a year. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who chairs the finance committee, said last week that the Highway Trust Fund must receive an infusion of $10 billion to carry it through calendar 2014 and $8 billion more in fiscal 2015 due to dwindling gasoline tax revenues. Keeping the fund solvent for six years without an additional revenue source would require a total of $100 billion, he said.
Lawmakers have transferred a total of $54 billion from the Treasury's general fund to the Highway Trust Fund since 2008.
The Congressional Budget Office's baseline projection estimates $34 billion per year of revenue from the gasoline tax comes into the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund.
The Senate Committee bill would provide $38.4 billion in fiscal 2015 for the Highway Trust Fund, which would rise to $42.6 billion by fiscal 2020. Total funding, including grants and other programs, totals $257.8 billion over six years -- from $40.9 billion in fiscal 2015 to $45.1 billion in fiscal 2020.
The proposed bill would increase the amount of highway funding each state receives every year, the Environment and Public Works Committee said in a summary it released with the text of the bill. "It provides new long-term funding, giving state and local governments the certainty and stability they need to improve and develop our nation's transportation infrastructure," the committee said. "These investments will create new jobs, provide a boost to our nation's economy, and keep us competitive in the global marketplace."
At first glance the Senate proposal is a bipartisan approach to long-term investments in transportation infrastructure, said Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "While we begin the process of reviewing the specifics of the bill, we look forward to working with Senators Boxer and Vitter and the rest of the committee to address the looming Highway Trust Fund crisis. The nature of the projects and programs that state departments of transportation oversee require a long-term view to ensure the best investment of federal, state, and local tax dollars."
The House has not yet developed a highway bill.
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has said he intends to have a draft transportation bill for committee consideration before the August congressional recess. Funding for the bill is the responsibility of the House Ways & Means Committee.
The provision in the Senate Committee bill directing the DOT to explore alternative transportation revenue mechanisms that preserve the current user-fee structure of the highway fund is encouraging, said Patrick Jones, chief executive officer of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association.
"We recognize that, in an election year, it is especially challenging to develop a bipartisan transportation bill that balances infrastructure investment needs with the task of raising needed revenues," Jones said.
Obama's proposal would be funded with gasoline tax revenues and $150 billion from revisions to the corporate tax code aimed at foreign earnings of U.S. corporations.
Obama is scheduled to make a speech highlighting transportation infrastructure investments on Wednesday at the $3.9 billion Tappan Zee bridge renovation project in New York.
