In a
shameless round of what has become typical Congressional backbiting and last
minute gamesmanship with the futures of millions of our citizens, both the
House and the Senate yesterday passed a three month extension of the Highway
Trust Fund, mostly along party lines, and just two days before authority to
collect and spend the federal motor fuel tax would have expired. The move,
coming only hours before the House adjourned for two weeks, preserved the
ability of the federal government to continue collecting $110 million a day in
motor fuel taxes.
However,
while the elected representatives in Washington, D.C., tout the measure as
preserving 1.8 million construction industry jobs on infrastructure projects,
that outcome is much less than clear. Projects already underway, it is true,
will get continued funding for another 91 days, but the uncertainty about how
much money might be available to state and local governments for projects which
they planned to bid out next month could result in withdrawal of bid packages
slated for release this spring, pushing many of those projects back a whole
year due to the delay in passage of long term reauthorization legislation.
The
Senate has already passed a two year, $109 billion reauthorization measure, but
the more ambitious House version, a four year, $138.5 billion measure, fell
apart amid strong tea party opposition. This much uncertainty about the level
of federal funding for infrastructure construction after July 1, 2012, could
lead Chicago and Illinois to delay bidding on CTA rehabilitation projects and
IDOT’s annual construction program, slated for release to bidders in June.
Congressional heedlessness to the summer highway construction season north of
the Mason-Dixon line at this late date is simply unforgivable.
