House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) announced Wednesday that the committee is scheduled to take up transportation legislation on Thursday, Oct. 22. No details on the proposed measure were released, but the draft bill is expected to be made available tomorrow to allow time for committee members to review the text before the markup begins next week. The current extension of highway and transit programs ends Oct. 29 and it is expected that another short-term extension will be necessary to allow time for the House to complete action and conference with the Senate to negotiate the final bill. Many questions about what is likely to be in the bill are still unanswered, including length of the bill, funding levels and how the needed revenue will be provided. The Ways and Means Committee must address the revenue portion of the bill and no word has been given on when that will happen.
The Senate passed its version of a multi-year highway and transit bill, called the DRIVE Act, back in July. That legislation authorizes six years of funding with modest annual increases but only provides enough additional revenue to cover three years of the shortfall. The revenue comes from a transfer of general fund revenue that is offset by a variety of tax code tweaks and other revenue enhancers. Some of these pay-fors are controversial, leaving much uncertainty about the final outcome.
AGC sent a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee strongly encouraging that they consider a combination of increasing existing user fees and dedicating new fees to the Highway Trust Fund as options to fill the six-year shortfall and create a basis for long-term trust fund solvency. AGC provided a chart which identifies multiple sources of revenue tied to transportation that could be used to fund the highway and transit programs long term. AGC has provided this list of options on numerous previous occasions.
For more information, please contact Brian Deery at deeryb@agc.org or (703) 837-5319.