Transportation infrastructure: Senators pen letter to Majority and Minority leaders on surface transportation bill extension
Bi-partisan group calls for a six-month extension on a surface transportation bill to spur job creation and economic recovery
Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/18/2009
WASHINGTON-With no clear idea of when a long-term surface transportation authorization will be passed, a bi-partisan group of seven Senate Committee Chairs and Ranking Members penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to take steps towards a six-month extension on a surface transportation bill to spur job creation and economic recovery.
The letter was sent to Reid and McConnell by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Ranking Member, Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV), Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Ranking Member, and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Committee on Finance.
"We believe a multi-month extension of SAFETEA-LU is the best solution," the senators said in the letter. "It would give states the certainty they need to plan and contract for transportation infrastructure projects. The Department of Transportation estimates that every $1 billion spent on transportation and matched by the states supports approximately 35,000 jobs. It would also give the Department of Transportation's highway safety agencies the certainty they need to continue implementing safety-critical programs that keep motorists safe on our roads."
This call for an extension follows a seven-week extension was approved in late October to continue funding for federal surface transportation until December 18. That vote was part of a continuing resolution to continue funding for seven of 12 Fiscal 2010 spending bills which originally expired on September 30 and were extended in late September for four weeks with an October 31 expiration date.
This most recent continuing resolution represents the second extension for surface transportation funding since SAFETEA-LU-the current $286 billion, five-year spending program-Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users- expired at the end of September. And it also signals that a more long-term fix is not likely to come in the short-term, due to Congress's ongoing focus over the health care reform debate.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Director of Transportation Infrastructure Janet Kavinoky said in an interview that the senator's letter reflects the fact that the Senate is coming to the realization that there is a jobs angle to doing a SAFETEA-LU re-authorization.
"In my mind, what is driving a lot of this are high unemployment numbers," said Kavinoky. "And the change in attitude from an 18-month extension [that was reported by the Committee on Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation, and the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs prior to SAFETEA-LU expiring in September] to a six-month decision was driven by these numbers. The reality is that anything is better than this short-term continuing resolution situation we are in today."
And on an anecdotal basis, Kavinoky said that the uncertainty and lack of clarity surrounding future surface transportation funding is forcing construction companies to not disclose future earnings forecasts. What's more, she also explained the CEOs calls for increased and sustained funding to lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear to be falling on deaf ears.
"I hope that the Senate's willingness to move on a [long-term] bill is reflective of an increasing number of rank-and-file senators hearing-from companies in their districts-that they have got to get moving on a longer-term SAFETEA-LU re-authorization bill," she said. "Everyone knows a six-month extension is not optimal. We need a long-term bill. Equipment manufacturers and other capital- and labor-intensive companies are not going to make investments in people and capital expenditures until there is a longer-term time horizon."
Earlier this year, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar drafted six-year, $500 billion bill introduced as a successor to SAFETEA-LU. Oberstar's plan-with a vision for a National Transportation Strategic Plan that is intermodal in nature and national in scope-is at a standstill due to lack of sufficient funding mechanisms.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Spokesman Jim Berard told LM that between now and the second continuing resolution deadline of December 18, a few different things may happen. One may be moving to a long-term bill and another may be coming to an agreement on another extension on an indeterminate amount of time.
"Chairman Oberstar would like to see the long-term bill move and be on the House floor by Christmas, but we are still in a holding pattern to due health care," said Berard. "And the Ways and Means Committee on the House side has to mark up the revenue title of the [Oberstar] bill before we can even bring it to the House floor."
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"Oberstar's plan-with a vision for a National Transportation Strategic Plan that is international in nature and national in scope-is at a standstill due to lack of sufficient funding mechanisms."
I believe the author meant "interMODAL in nature and national in scope."
David - 2009-19-11 11:16:26 EST
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