The legislation, which would extend federal highway and infrastructure spending until Nov. 20, now goes to the Senate for approval in advance of the Oct. 29 expiration of current funding.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill to extend current federal transportation and infrastructure spending an additional three weeks in an attempt to avoid an interruption in current funding.
The stop-gap legislation (H.R. 3819), which would push the deadline for highway funding from Oct. 29 to Nov. 20, will now go to the Senate, where it is also expected to be approved. President Obama’s office said last week he would sign the latest short-term patch, despite previously directing Congress to pass a long-term bill.
“The unfortunate reality is Congress will need to pass another short-term” funding bill, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday in a briefing with reporters.
Lawmakers say the temporary patch will give them time to finish work a long-term highway bill, but Congress has not passed a transportation funding bill lasting longer than two years since 2005.
Transportation industry advocates argue that short-term measures prevent state governments from being able to move forward with long-term infrastructure projects due to uncertainty regarding federal funding.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last Thursday unanimously approved the six-year, $325 billion Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform (STRR) Act of 2015, which would reauthorize federal transportation programs, including highway and bridge construction aid. STRR also for the first time includes guaranteed dedicated funding for freight-related infrastructure projects, but some analysts say it doesn’t go far enough to address the growing infrastructure deficit in the United States.
A $90 billion shortfall is expected between highway user fee receipts and full funding of surface transport improvements over the course of a six-year bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Department of Transportation spends about $16 billion more each year on transportation projects than the Highway Trust Fund receives from gas and diesel taxes, which haven’t been raised in over 22 years.
According to DOT figures, there is an $808 billion backlog of investment needs on highways and bridges, including $479 billion in “critical” repair work.
STRR maintains flat funding, plus small increases for inflation, without addressing the hole in the Highway Trust Fund or the growing backlog of projects needed to curb congestion and maintain safe roadways. House lawmakers are expected to put their finishing touches on the bill before holding a full vote that would send it to the Senate for consideration alongside a similar bill passed in that chamber earlier this summer.
The Senate’s DRIVE Act, passed in July, would authorize about $258 billion in funding over six years, but only includes guaranteed funding for three years because senators could not agree on how to fund the remaining years beyond baseline levels.
Assuming STRR passes the full House vote, lawmakers from both sides of Congress will have until Nov. 20 for a bicameral conference committee on the broader infrastructure bill.
“Because we still face this important [conference], Congress will need one more extension to get us to the finish line,” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., said on Monday before the House vote.
In a speech later that evening, Inhofe said he and other Senate leaders expect to finish a long-term transportation bill by the new Nov. 20 deadline.
“Unlike in years past, I expect a very short conference period,” said Inhofe. “When I say a very short conference period, it’s because there’s very little difference between the House bill and the Senate bill. I’ve talked to the likely conferees and they are in accord with the idea that we can do this in a matter of hours and not days.”
“It doesn’t give us much time, but we need to get down to work,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said of the short-term extension.
The temporary transportation funding patch also includes a provision to extend the Dec. 31 deadline for railways to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) for an additional three years, possibly averting a partial shutdown of major railroads. PTC is a wireless communication system that can override a conductor to slow or stop a train to prevent an accident.
Supporters of the system have claimed it will drastically improve railroad safety for both passenger and cargo movement, but railways have complained that the prior deadline didn’t give them enough time to implement and certify the complicated system. Many railroads, including Amtrak, CSX, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and BNSF, previously threatened to shut down entire sections of track rather than be subject to steep fines and increased liability as of Jan. 1.
“This legislation averts what would have been a catastrophic shutdown of railroad service while putting accountability provisions in place to ensure that implementation of positive train control moves forward,” Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said of the provision to extend the deadline for PTC implementation.
“I urge the president to sign this bipartisan, bicameral measure into law as soon as possible to end the uncertainty surrounding the looming deadline for rail passengers and shippers across the country. After two years of intensive oversight work from the Senate Commerce Committee, I am pleased the Congress came together to pass a tough, bipartisan, and accountability-focused measure to ensure that we never need another extension.”
House approves 3-week transportation funding patch
