Large crowd expected at transportation meeting

Vancouver will host a rare congressional committee meeting tomorrow.

And it could get crowded.

o What: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee listening session with U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.

o When: 9 to 11 a.m. Monday.

o Where: Clark Public Utilities Community Room, 1200 Fort Vancouver Way.

o Note: Room has 125-person capacity.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a “listening session” at the Clark Public Utilities Community Room, capacity 125, at 1200 Fort Vancouver Way, to hear what’s on the minds of Southwest Washington residents as Congress begins drafting the next big multi-year transportation spending bill.

What’s on their minds, mostly, is the Columbia River Crossing.

Anti-tolling activists are expected to show up in droves, with signs. A new counter-group, BuildThatBridge.info, formed last week to provide the pro-bridge view, is urging people to show up an hour early to get a seat. The Cascade Bicycle Club is urging its members to attend to support funding for safe community bicycle routes to school.

The session is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday, with the first hour devoted to testimony from invited speakers, including Washington Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond and anti-toll crusader David Madore. The second hour will be open to public comment.

The proceedings will be taped for later broadcast on CVTV.

U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, who serves on the Transportation Committee, asked the committee’s chairman, Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., to put Vancouver on his schedule as he travels the country holding similar forums with transportation officials and stakeholders.

Casey Bowman, Herrera Beutler’s spokesman, said it’s likely lots will be drawn to determine who is called on to speak during the public comment period. “Our staff will be there with forms for people to write their comments” if they aren’t chosen to testify before the committee, he said.

Bowman said Herrera Beutler worked with Mica’s staff to find a venue that would be centrally located.

Those invited to speak have been asked to focus on regional transportation needs specific to Southwest Washington, he said. “I’m certain the bridge will be a major topic.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., ranking Democrat on the Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, will attend the session. DeFazio reportedly forwarded the names of several elected officials and business representatives, including Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt and Metro Council President Tom Hughes, to Herrera Beutler’s office as possible panelists to provide invited testimony.

One of DeFazio’s nominees, Chandra Brown from Oregon Iron Works, will be included on the panel, Bowman said. “Since there wasn’t room for elected officials on the panel, we’re working to organize a brief meeting between Chairman Mica and Clark County commissioners and all of the county’s mayors prior to the listening session,” he said.

Herrera Beutler’s goal in asking for a listening session in Vancouver was to elevate her district’s issues as the Transportation Committee begins drafting a bill authorizing funding for the nation’s highway, transit and safety programs for the next several years.

On his website, Mica says he is seeking input on “how to consolidate and improve the performance of programs, cut government red tape and streamline the project delivery process, increase private sector investment in our infrastructure (and) identify creative financing alternatives.”

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, is leading the Washington effort to win federal money for a share of Columbia River Crossing bridge construction costs and the full cost of a light rail line on the new bridge linking Vancouver to the Portland metro area’s MAX lines.

Bowman said both the authorizing and appropriations committees will play important roles in the process.

“The Transportation Committee authorizes policy changes, funding levels for programs, and — in the past — specific projects in its multiyear surface transportation legislation,” he said in an e-mail. “The Appropriations Committee must then appropriate funding.”

He noted that both the Senate and House have enacted bans on earmarks for specific projects in legislation. That will affect transportation policy “in ways that are difficult to predict,” he said.

“We’ve heard the chairman say that he wants to pass a transportation bill. Inherently, there will be maintenance and new projects in such a bill.”

Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.