Tuesday’s House vote to temporarily replenish the Highway Trust Fund could keep federally funded projects in Washington on track. The 43 state projects total $29 million.
The Washington State Department of Transportation has said those highway projects would be delayed or shelved if the Highway Trust Fund becomes insolvent, projected to happen later this summer without action.
The state typically receives reimbursements for projects that are federally funded, and the crisis could throw schedules into turmoil during the height of the construction season.
One of the projects is a $950,000 repaving of Interstate 5 between Northeast 39th and 99th streets.
Tuesday's House vote to temporarily replenish the Highway Trust Fund could keep federally funded projects in Washington on track. The 43 state projects total $29 million.
The Washington State Department of Transportation has said those highway projects would be delayed or shelved if the Highway Trust Fund becomes insolvent, projected to happen later this summer without action.
The state typically receives reimbursements for projects that are federally funded, and the crisis could throw schedules into turmoil during the height of the construction season.
One of the projects is a $950,000 repaving of Interstate 5 between Northeast 39th and 99th streets.
The area's largest highway projects, such as the $133 million Salmon Creek Interchange Project at I-5 and Interstate 205, are paid for by state gas taxes and thus not affected by the federal Highway Trust Fund.
The area’s largest highway projects, such as the $133 million Salmon Creek Interchange Project at I-5 and Interstate 205, are paid for by state gas taxes and thus not affected by the federal Highway Trust Fund.
WASHINGTON — With an August deadline looming, the House voted Tuesday to temporarily patch over a multibillion-dollar pothole in federal highway and transit programs while ducking the issue of how to put them on a sound financial footing for the long term.
The action cobbles together $10.8 billion by using pension tax changes, customs fees and money from a fund to repair leaking underground fuel storage tanks to keep the federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for transportation programs nationwide, solvent through May 2015. The vote was 367 to 55. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
Without congressional action, the Transportation Department says that by the first week in August, the fund will no longer have enough money to cover promised aid to states, and the government will begin to stretch out payments. Congress has kept the highway trust fund teetering on the edge of bankruptcy since 2008 through a series of temporary fixes because lawmakers have been unable to find a politically acceptable long-term funding plan.
The most obvious solution would be to raise the federal fuel taxes — currently 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel — which haven’t been increased in over 20 years. But lawmakers are reluctant to raise taxes in an election year — especially Republicans, for whom a vote in favor of any tax increase could trigger a backlash from their party’s base.
As a result, Congress has had to look elsewhere for transportation money while not increasing the federal deficit. The bill by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., relies on tax changes that are forecast to generate revenue over 10 years, but provide only enough money to keep the highway and transit programs going for another 10 months.
The largest chunk of the money, $6.4 billion, results from allowing employers to defer payments to their employee pension plans. Funding pension plans normally results in a tax savings for companies, and deferring those payments means they will pay more in taxes and increase federal revenue. But several lawmakers suggested the revenue from the pension changes is illusory.
“Come on, really, it’s pretty phony stuff,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. “Let’s get real about how we’re going to fund our transportation” programs.
“All this does is set us up for the same crisis a few months from now. So Congress shouldn’t pat itself on the back for averting disaster for a few months,” he said. Earlier this year, Obama offered a $302 billion plan to increase transportation spending and keep programs going for another four years. The plan, which was paid for by closing business tax loopholes, was received coolly by Republicans.
Democrats and some Republicans complained that it won’t be any easier under the GOP bill to reach a compromise on sustainable, long-term means to pay for programs by pushing off a decision until next year when the presidential campaign is heating up. Republicans, however, may be in a better position to shape a transportation bill to their liking next year if they re-take control of the Senate in this fall’s midterm elections.
Republicans are divided over transportation policy. A significant minority of the party’s more conservative House members want to slash federal gas and diesel taxes, dramatically scale back transportation aid and leave it to states to come up with the money to pay for roads, bridges, buses and trains.
The House defeated along party lines a motion by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., that would reduce the money in the bill to about $8 billion — just enough to pay for highway and transit aid through Dec. 31 — in the hope that another quick deadline would force Congress to come to an agreement on a long-term funding plan this year.
