Senate votes to debate long-term transportation bill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got a big win Wednesday when the Senate agreed by a 62-36 vote to begin talks on a six-year bill to reauthorize surface transportation programs for infrastructure investment and safety.    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got a big win Wednesday when the Senate agreed by a 62-36 vote to begin debate on a six-year bill to reauthorize surface transportation programs for infrastructure investment and safety.
   One of McConnell’s goals is to showcase Republicans’ ability to effectively govern ahead of next year’s election and he is trying to enact a long-term bill before current funding expires on July 31. The House, however, last week approved a five-month extension on the premise that there is not enough time to come to agreement on new long-term legislation, especially in the controversial area of how to raise new revenue to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent.
   The Highway Trust Fund is now short about $16 billion a year because user fees on motor fuels are not keeping up with construction projects being carried out by states, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Lawmakers are divided on how to come up with a sustainable source of new money, with many against raising taxes because of the impact on the poor and middle class, and others arguing for spending cuts instead of increasing the budget deficit.
   McConnell’s bill, crafted together with Environmental and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and its ranking member, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., uses a series of one-time offsets that critics say won’t provide long-term funding certainty. The legislation includes transfers of some customs fees and Transportation Security Administration passenger security fees, lowering interest rates paid by the Federal Reserve to banks, taking money from the Social Security Trust Fund, selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and measures to increase certain types of tax compliance.
   The vote came one day after consideration of the bill was blocked, primarily because centrist Democrats said they didn’t have enough time to read details of the massive deal. On Wednesday, many of them changed their minds and helped pass the motion to open debate.
   With the procedural matter out of the way, the Senate can begin to take up amendments, which could throw a wrench into chances of passage. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have threatened to file amendments related to abortion and Obamacare, and others want to include the reauthorization Export-Import Bank after its charter was allowed to expire last month. 
   Among those voting yesterday in favor of cloture was Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida. It was his first vote since having cancer surgery. Nelson feels strongly about a long-term transportation bill and wanted to ensure there were enough votes for the Senate to take up the matter, according to a statement from his office.