A
flurry of activity late last week surrounding the conference committee
negotiations over terms of a much needed two year reauthorization of the
federal Highway Trust Fund is masking the reality that even if the Senate’s
$109 billion version of the appropriations measure passes and gets signed into
law, infrastructure construction in this nation will be woefully underfunded in
the remainder of this decade. June 19 in Speaker Boehner’s office, Boehner met
with Majority Leader Reid, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara
Boxer, and Ranking Member James Inhofe, and House Transportation and
Infrastructure Chairman John Mica at what can only be characterized as a pep
rally to get something more than a six month band aid extension through
Congress before the current temporary legislation expires June 30. Following
that meeting, Boxer and Mica told the press that Boehner and Reid directed
“stepped up efforts” to reach a deal before the month end deadline.
Wednesday,
June 20, the House voted 386 to 34 to instruct its conferees to produce a
compromise bill within two days. Thursday, June 21, Boehner and Reid held
separate press conferences to announce that conference committee negotiations
were “moving along.” Reid’s comments were cautiously optimistic: “Now, I can’t
guarantee anyone here we’re going to get a highway bill. But, we’re certainly
in much better shape than we were 24 hours ago. There’s significant progress
being made. We hope that we can get this over the finish line.” Boehner’s
remarks were equally reserved: “House Republicans want to get a highway bill
done, and our colleagues are working toward producing a bill.” Then he followed
up that mild endorsement of progress with announcement that House Republicans
still want fast track provisions for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline in
a final measure – provisions which President Obama has already promised to
veto.
All
this hype, including a joint statement from Boxer and Mica that “The conferees
have moved forward toward a bipartisan, bicameral agreement,” only serves to
conceal the sad facts about the legislation they are working on. Any two year
bill coming out of this process will provide infrastructure funding of only $50
billion a year, while the Obama Administration meekly asked early in this
Congressional session for about $80 billion annually, and the nation’s needs
for simply maintaining our current transportation infrastructure require a
minimum of $100 billion every year. Real modernization and expansion of
transportation facilities, and the concomitant reinvigoration of the nation’s
construction economy, would mean appropriation of $200 billion each and every
year for the rest of the decade.
So,
while our leaders in Congress are busy trumpeting their paltry progress toward
a woefully inadequate and truncated longer term Highway Trust Fund
reauthorization measure, what they are really doing is using smoke and mirrors
to defer any real action on the nation’s transportation infrastructure needs
until after the November elections.
Shame,
shame on them all!
