Late Wednesday morning, March 14, 2012, the Senate
voted 74-22 to pass a two year, $109 billion Highway Trust Fund reauthorization
bill, just a mere 17 days before the taxing and spending authority for federal
surface transportation programs runs out on March 31, 2012. The spending level,
according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former congressman, is far
below the level needed to maintain America’s surface transportation facilities
and expand them to meet the needs of population growth. In his remarks, LaHood
described federally funded highways as “one big pothole.”
Under the Senate measure, programs for construction of
bicycle paths, hiking trails, safe routes to schools, and rails to trails
construction will now have to compete for funding for other so called “congestion
mitigation” projects. The bill also includes toughened safety requirements for
the long distance and tour bus industries, which together transport aoughly the
same number of passengers annually as the nation’s airline industry. The
legislation also includes a tenfold increase, to $1 billion, for funding of the
credit assistance program designed to leverage private investment in revenue
generating transportation projects. Past estimates show this program can
generate as much as $30 in private capital for every dollar of government
participation.
The ball is now in the court of House Speaker John
Boehner of Ohio, whos own chamber’s larger version of a Highway Trust Fund
reauthorization measure fell apart earlier this session. It remains to be seen
whether the Senate legislation, which does not address the long term solvency
of the Highway Trust Fund, will fare in the House. Senate passage was completed
only after competing Senate amendments, one to prohibit new tolls on existing
interstates, and one to expressly permit states to impose new tolls on existing
interstates, were both withdrawn. With the House in recess until next week, the
suspense lingers.
