Transportation: Bid to extend highway funding hits procedural wall (The National Journal)
Despite backing from both parties, a Senate deal to extend surface
transportation law for three months and restore $8.7 billion in spending
authority collapsed Wednesday night when several Republicans objected to
the source of money to pay for the fix.
The breakdown came just hours before the existing law expired with the
midnight end of the fiscal year, leaving states facing the prospect of
halting projects and laying off thousands of workers because the one-month
extension approved by both chambers does not include the renewed spending
authority.
The measure already appeared doomed because of objections from House
Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar, but the
last-minute objection gave Senate Democrats a chance to assign blame to the
opposing party rather than their own.
“All of our states are going to suffer; 17,000 people will be thrown out
of work because the Republicans cannot agree with both the chairman and
ranking member,” Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara
Boxer said.
“There is plenty of blame to go around tonight, but the focus should be on
the fact that Congress failed, and as a result, thousands of American jobs
are now in doubt. This is simply inexcusable,” said Environment and Public
Works ranking member James Inhofe.
Boxer, Inhofe, Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell had
agreed on using $300 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Fund to pay for
unused spending authority in the 2005 surface transportation bill that
would be otherwise eliminated.
But a group of GOP conservatives, taking a position Inhofe had since
dropped, wanted to tap unallocated stimulus money. That approach was pushed
by Sen. David Vitter, R-La. The GOP objections sunk the bill it was too
late to fight through cloture and so the Senate had to pass it by unanimous
consent.
After the objection, Boxer and Senate Majority Whip Durbin blasted
Republicans. But the bill already appeared to be dead on arrival because of
Oberstar’s objections.
In a statement released before the Senate measure stalled, Oberstar said
the Senate was acting irresponsibly by moving a version unacceptable to the
House because it would increase spending and violate pay/go rules. He also
argued that the Senate version included earmarks that went to only a few
states and were not competitive enough.
Earlier in the day, the Senate followed the House in passing a continuing
resolution with a one-month extension of the law, but Oberstar said that
would provide states with “almost $1 billion less in highway infrastructure
funding than the amount provided under the first month of the House bill’s
investment levels.”
Oberstar called that “unacceptable and irresponsible at a time when the
nation is beginning to recover from the worst economic recession since the
1930s.” He wants by next year to pass a long-term highway extension bill,
while many Democrats would like to put off the issue until after the 2010
elections.
Despite the battling over lost jobs and concern from cash-strapped states,
it was not immediately clear how severe the immediate impact of the failure
to a pass a bill with the elimination of the $8.7 billion recession would
be.
Senators noted the one-month extension lessens the fallout.
“Whatever happens, they’ve got the 30 days,” said Environment and Public
Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee ranking member George
Voinovich, R-Ohio.
“We could fix it at a later date,” Boxer acknowledged on the Senate floor.
“But every day that goes by makes it more difficult.”
Inhofe declined to identify the three GOP objectors, but said they opposed
using TARP funds because they had previously signed a letter advocating
using that money only for debt reduction.
Inhofe said that once the objections are cleared, the Senate and House
should be able to pass a three-month extension with the rescission fix. “I
think that can be done and that can be done tomorrow without having
everything fall apart tonight,” Inhofe said.
By Dan Friedman and Darren Goode
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cda_20091001_9845.php
