Republicans at work
House Speaker John Boehner was hoping the week-long holiday Congress took for Presidents Day would give him time to scoop together enough votes to pass one of the
worst transportation bills in living memory. Warring factions within his party put the kibosh on. Among other things, some said the $260 billion in the five-year bill was too much, even though that is $26 billion less than the 2005 transportation bill signed by George W. Bush in 2005.
Naturally, Boehner blamed the Democrats. Some Republicans argued for waiting until after the election to bring forth a new bill. But for the past week there's been a serious effort under way to come back with something passable:
“We’re trying to cobble together the different factions to get enough votes to pass it,” House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.) said Tuesday, describing his Monday meeting with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “We do not have a plan yet. We have five [or] six options we’re considering.
The original bill would have chopped environmental review, widened highways with money now set aside to improve air quality and congestion, cut funding for Amtrak, got rid of funding dedicated to bikeways and walking infrastructure and funded mass transit with a one-year lump sum and then let it compete for the next four years with other projects in the government's general fund. In addition, revenue from the dwindling excise tax on gasoline and diesel would have been supplemented with royalties from new drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the Florida’s Gulf coast.
Mica says he thinks the fans of mass transit who were among the bill's foes should have taken that deal. At least they would have gotten funding for one year. Is he hinting they may get less in the next go-round? Since the fuel excise tax has fallen in recent years as a result of Americans driving less and the cars they drive being more fuel efficient and getting ever more so, there's a revenue gap. In addition to consumer switches, the gasoline tax has not been raised from 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993. Adjusted for inflation, that 18.4 cents is worth 37 percent less than it was nearly 20 years ago.
Mica doesn't know what it will take to get the 218 votes needed to pass a bill. In the good old days, he could trade votes for earmarks, funding for specific pet projects in a congressperson's district. But the bill has no earmarks, partly as a consequence of bad publicity around "bridges to nowhere." So it all comes down to persuading individual members on the basis of what makes the best policy for the common good, not exactly the highest Republican priority on any issue.
The best solution? Do nothing for now. Congress can keep funding transportation with extensions the same way it has been since the last bill expired in 2009. Better all around to wait for the outcome of the elections. Maybe, just maybe, a better bill can be crafted then.