InfrastructureCritics say $265 billion transportation bill insufficient

Transportation advocates criticize the lack of an increase in funding in the Senate’s $265 billion surface transportation bill recently unveiled. Senate leaders said the bill would replace the current transportation funding measure and maintain current funding levels, adjusted for inflation, for the next six years. The proposed bill includes $44 billion annually for road and transit projects, based on a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of how much funding will be needed to maintain current federal transit programs.

The Hill reports that Transportation for America Director James Corless said that although the Senate proposal will prevent a projected bankruptcy in transportation funding expected to occur by the end of the summer, an annual funding increase is needed to improve the condition of American roads and transit systems beyond their current state. “The draft bill takes several important steps to address gaps or to build on some policies introduced in MAP-21,” Corless said in a statement. “However, our alliance of local elected, business and civic leaders believes the proposed legislation stops well short of providing communities the access to resources they need to support economic success.”

The CBC has projected that Department of Transportation’s Highway Trust Fund will run out of money by August 2014 without congressional action. Corless said the Senate bill would prevent bankruptcy but it would only maintain the status quo in federal transportation funding. “Rather than make improvements on the margins, the federal program needs to recognize the importance of our cities, towns and suburbs and move control and accountability closer to the people who pay into the system,” Corless said. “Allowing communities to compete for a larger share of the funding would incentivize innovation and reward smart decision-making and efficiency.”

Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who helped draft the proposal said the funding allocated in the bill was the most they could provide for as long as they could. “The legislation builds on the success of the comprehensive reforms and performance-based approach to transportation investment in Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century,” the committee said in a press release announcing the filing of the transportation legislation.”It provides long-term funding, giving state and local governments the certainty and stability they need to improve and develop our nation’s transportation infrastructure. These investments will create new jobs, provide a boost to our nation’s economy, and keep us competitive in the global marketplace.”

The current transportation funding bill, the 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Act, will expire in September. When passed in 2012, the bill included funding for about 18-month worth of transportation projects. At the time, lawmakers said $109 billion was all they could gather for the bill.

The traditional funding source for congressional transportation bills has been revenue from the federal gas tax bill, which is currently set at 18.4 cents per gallon. That tax has not been increased since 1993, and even then the price hike was not adjusted for inflation. As a result the gas tax brings in $34 billion per year, far below the roughly $50 billion per year the 2012 transportation bill allocated to transportation spending. Furthermore the CBO has said that Congress needs to approve at least $45 million per year going forward in order to maintain transportation improvement projects.

Transportation advocates and some Democrats have proposed to increase the gas tax to 33 cents per gallon to meet funding needs and to reflect what would be the inflation adjusted tax amount, but Republicans and President Barack Obama have been reluctant to raise taxes at the pump in an election year.

The House has not offered a version of the transportation funding bill.