Words from House T&I Committee transportation infrastructure draft need to be put into action

Just because Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Penn.), Chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, is retiring from Congress at the end of his current term does not mean he is mailing it in. In fact, it appears to be quite the opposite, especially given the myriad details proposed this week under his leadership to remedy the longstanding ailments that plague United States infrastructure. 

These details came in the form of a discussion draft” focused on meeting the challenges of a 21st century transportation system, which were released by the House T&I Committee.

In a statement accompanying the discussion draft, Shuster said: “The 2016 presidential campaign shined a spotlight on America’s crumbling infrastructure.

Since Election Day, the American people have waited for action by their federal elected representatives, and I am just as frustrated as they are that we have yet to seriously consider a responsible, thoughtful proposal.  That is why I have released a discussion draft that reflects input from Members on both sides of the aisle, as well as a broad group of infrastructure stakeholders interested in building a 21st century infrastructure for our country. This discussion draft does not represent a complete and final infrastructure bill.  It is meant to reignite discussions amongst my colleagues, and I urge all Members to be open-minded and willing to work together in considering real solutions that will give America the modern day infrastructure it needs. Over the coming weeks and months, I look forward to additional input from my Republican and Democratic colleagues in order to prepare a bill for congressional consideration.”

While it is true that the 2016 election did pledge a fair amount of time to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, the need for it has certainly been echoed over the years. But, as we all know, at time, the pleading and the ire ostensibly falls on deaf ears in….you guessed it, Congress.

Yes, there are many reasons for this, but, as usual, funding, or lack thereof, tends to be at the top of the list. That has been a constant frustration for really many parties, including Congress, the general public, and, of course, freight transportation and logistics service providers and shippers.

Many of the key themes in the “discussion draft” are very strong, focusing on the long-term future of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), the key funding mechanism for funding transportation infrastructure projects, which is dependent on a federal gasoline tax that has not been raised since 1993 and has been insolvent for years at this point.

It has long been stated that the main reason the HTF has not bee raised is due to a lack of political will-and while that may still appears to be the case today-it is, at the very least, encouraging that this discussion draft is aware of that and hopes to change that theme through various measures, including:

• establishing a Highway Trust Fund Commission that will submit a report to Congress that includes recommendations to achieve the long-term solvency of the HTF and the corresponding legislation required to enact those recommendations;
• establishing a per-mile user fee surface transportation system funding pilot that would form a national, volunteer-based pilot program to demonstrate whether a per-mile user fee can replace the existing user fees on gasoline and diesel, which are the primary sources of revenue for the HTF. Volunteers can be owners of both passenger vehicles and commercial motor vehicles, as well as an owner of a fleet commercial of motor vehicles. The pilot program would be administered by the Secretary of Transportation, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury;
• increasing the federal user fees (i.e. the federal gasoline tax) on gasoline and diesel fuel by 15 cents per gallon and 20 cents per gallon, respectively. These increases are phased in over a period of three calendar years. Once the phase in is complete, the new user fees are indexed to inflation. On September 30, 2028, the rates for these user fees become zero;
• provide an “additional year of certainty” to non-federal partners by extending the funding, policies, and programs of the FAST (Fixing America's Surface Transportation) Act through fiscal year 2021; and
• establish a set-aside and a transparent process within the FAST Act’s National Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program for a future Congress to authorize nationally significant highway, bridge, and freight projects, among others

It is hard to know, or tell, if these proposals will ever see the light of day, given the all-time high level of political dysfunction, which is really saying something, no? But, in any case, there are some good ideas and it would certainly behoove whomever the next Chairperson of the House T&I Committee is to consider and perhaps even implement them. As the saying goes, “talk is cheap, play the game.” Well, this game is very late into the fourth quarter and we are out of time outs. Hopefully, Congress takes the ball and makes the shots needed to get our infrastructure out of the dark ages and into the future.