Looking for an Answer by December: Transportation Funding Crisis

The Road to a Solution for Transportation Funding                                       Long-term solution for transportation funding is still needed.  U.S. roads, bridges and highway infrastructure are in great need of repair.  As we await a solution, the infrastructure continues to crumble all around us.   This will a start a wave of negative impact, beginning with transporting carriers, back to the manufacturers and eventually drowning customers in an unstable product market and transportation costs. 

July 15, 2015                                                                                                          A five-month extension, H.R.3038—Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, Part II—was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.  It will give lawmakers until December 18th of this year to combine their efforts and determine a long-term solution.  Meanwhile, in the Senate, approval of their own multi-year transportation bill, S.1732 - Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act of 2015, has been granted.

July 20, 2015                                                                                                          Developing this week is a claim by Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that he is on the verge of clinching a long-term transportation agreement with a top Democrat – Senator Barbara Boxer.  Other than the Senator’s remarks, no further details have been released about the potential long-term bill.  The opinions of other Senate members range from approval of yet another short term extension to allow for more time to determine the source of funds for transportation spending; to a three year extension, carrying a solution through 2018; while others still tend to believe that there should be nothing short of a long-term solution of six years. 

July 22, 2015                                                                                          Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy: The DRIVE Act                                                                                                      The McConnell-Boxer bill makes its debut just an hour before a scheduled floor vote – and therefore was voted to not begin a review of the legislative text.  It is believed that there will not be enough time as well, to have this bill reviewed, negotiations to begin and compromises made to all end in enough votes to get it passed and sent to the President for a signatures.  Highlights of this newly proposed bill include:

• The bill provides three years of guaranteed funding from the Highway Trust Fund, the mechanism used to disburse funds for transportation projects.

• The national multimodal freight policy, which would be overseen by the DOT's undersecretary of policy, calls for the creation of a national freight network connecting port, highway, and rail nodes within one year of the bill's enactment. The network would be populated with multimodal facilities and corridors considered vital to the nation's goods-moving system.

• Within three years of enactment, the DOT secretary would be required to complete a national freight strategic plan assessing the performance of the projects selected to be in the network, and identifying shortcomings and bottlenecks in the system. The strategic plan would be reviewed every five years.

• $12.45 billion apportionment to freight projects over six years, with a 10-percent maximum allocation for multimodal initiatives; the bulk of the freight funding would go to highway-only projects.

July 23, 2015                                                                                                          The morning after debuting a six-year bill to reauthorize surface transportation programs for infrastructure investment and safety, the Senate has voted to allow talks to begin on this new bill.  Now Amendments will begin to filter in as lawmakers take the time to read through the massive bill.  The main concern is the manner in which the funding for the Highway Truck Fund will be made available.  Raise taxes?  Cut Spending.

July 30, 2015                                                                                                          The Senate has passed a long-term transportation bill & the deadline of 7/31/2015 has been met.  The House has passed their short-term spending bill, allowing government’s authority to process highway and transit aid payment to states through October 29 of this year.  However, House lawmakers have already recessed for their August break.  The Senate’s bill will go up for consideration during the fall session.  Positive progress has been made today with the passing of this bill by the Senate.  Positive progress is good, but a long term transportation bill is still in immediate need.  As many bills are coming to expiration, it may take longer than expected for the transportation bill to be addressed by the Senate. 

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