Senators seek to shorten transport bill to 5 years

A shorter surface transportation reauthorization bill would increase annual appropriations to a level that would allow more infrastructure projects to be completed, supporters say.    Some lawmakers are trying to pressure conferees to shorten the length of a compromise House-Senate surface transportation reauthorization bill so that more money will be available to address the nation’s infrastructure gap.
   Negotiators are trying to work out differences between House and Senate versions of a six-year, $325 billion bill.
   The Senate bill only has enough funding to cover three of the six years and the House bill uses a series of budget offsets – or “pay fors” – aimed at maintaining funding for transportation infrastructure and safety programs without increasing the budget deficit. Proposed offsets include changes to the way banks receive dividends from the Federal Reserve, increasing airline passenger security fees and diverting user fees on imports from the Customs and Border Protection account.
   Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, in remarks on the Senate floor, called for a five-year bill and his position was echoed by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., in a letter to the conferees.
   They argued that a six-year bill would barely exceed baseline funding levels and do little to address the nation’s infrastructure investment gap.
   “Right now, we are spending $91 billion a year – that’s including state and local funds – just to maintain the current poor condition. I know some of my Republican friends don’t want to hear this, but that’s just not enough. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that it will take $170 billion a year to improve the conditions of our roads and bridges. If we don’t increase funding, it’s only going to get worse. By 2020, the American Society of Civil Engineers maintains that the U.S. will need to invest $3.6 trillion in our infrastructure,” Reid said.
   “If Congress continues with current baseline funding for the next six years, our nation’s transportation infrastructure will be a disaster. It looks like that’s where we’re headed with the new Highway Bill. Instead of maintaining the status quo, now is the time for Congress to increase surface transportation funding. A five-year bill with improved funding would be far better than a six-year bill that makes no progress to fix our nation’s crumbling infrastructure,” Reid added.
   Carper and Booker said Congress should return to the practice of increasing annual funding levels when transportation authorization packages are considered, something that was regularly done through the 2005 SAFETEA-LU legislation that expired in 2009.
   “While the proposed Senate investment levels exceed baseline funding, they would still only be sufficient to cover expected increases in construction materials costs. These funding levels are certainly insufficient to rebuild and modernize our nation’s transportation infrastructure,” they wrote.
   Their letter was signed by 26 other senators.
   The lack of funding is a function of declining user-fee receipts for the Highway Trust Fund and inflation that has eroded the buying power of construction dollars given that motor fuel taxes have not been raised since 1993.