Ex-DOT chief raps Congress for highway patches

Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood chided Congress on Tuesday for refusing to increase the nation’s gas tax as lawmakers are preparing to pass a temporary extension of federal transportation funding that only last for two months.

LaHood, who is also a former member of Congress, said during an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition” show on Tuesday that lawmakers will have to keep settling for temporary patches of the nation’s infrastructure funding until they decide to increase taxes at the pump.

“The gas tax in America has not been raised for 20 years,” he said. “I don’t know of anything that hasn’t been raised in 20 years. The reason that Congress can’t pass a multi-year transportation bill is that they haven’t been able to come with the grips with the idea that need to raise the gas tax.”

{mosads}The comments come as lawmakers in the House are preparing to vote Tuesday on a two-month extension of a transportation bill that is scheduled to expire next week. Lawmakers attempted for months to find with a way to pay for a longer extension that would have lasted at least until the end of the year, but they struggled to come up with the approximately $10 billion that would have been needed to pass such a measure.

Instead, lawmakers in both chambers are preparing to pass an extension of the current funding measure until July 31 because the transportation department that LaHood once led has told them that the agency’s Highway Trust Fund has enough money left in its coffers to cover the extra two months of spending without needing any additional cash.

LaHood said Congress is eventually going to have to come to grips with the fact that the 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax is insufficient to pay for the nation’s infrastructure needs.

“People are driving less and they’re driving more fuel efficient cars,” he said. “And that’s changed dramatically from the time that we began paving over America with our interstate system.

“The idea that people are driving more hybrids, the idea that lots of people are using mass transit, more than ever before, means that the Highway Trust Fund is not getting the resources that it once did,” LaHood continued.  

Transportation advocates have complained that lawmakers have not passed a transportation package that lasts longer than two years since 2005. They say the shorter packages have left states unable to plan longer construction projects that are badly needed to improve the nation’s road and transit systems.

The problem has vexed Washington for the better part of a decade. The Transportation Department’s Highway Trust Fund takes revenue from the 18.4-cents-per-gallon gas tax, but the fuel levy has been weakened by improvements in car fuel efficiency.

Additionally, the federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in $34 billion annually at its current rate. Lawmakers have turned to other areas of the federal budget to close the gap in recent years, but infrastructure advocates say the patches are insufficient.

Transportation supporters have pushed for an increase in the gas tax, which has not been raised since 1993. Lawmakers have been reluctant to ask drivers to pay more at the pump, however, and Republicans in particular have ruled a hike a non-starter.

LaHood, who is himself a Republican, said the GOP’s opposition has been the largest obstacle to increasing the gas tax to help pay for a longer transportation funding package.

“They know that we should, but there’s enough that just don’t want to,” he said. “It’s just been very difficult to get conservative Republicans to think about raising the gas tax.”

LaHood said other ideas that have been floated, like taxing corporate profits overseas, will likely run into opposition from business groups. 

“The business community is not going to be for that,” he said of the so-called repatriation proposal, which has been endorsed by the Obama administration.

“They want to use that money for…research and development,” LaHood continued. “They want to use it for their own purposes. You’re not going to see the Chamber of Commerce or any business group stepping up and advocating for the use of repatriated funds for infrastructure.”

LaHood did not endorse the idea of raising that gas tax until he left the Obama administration. He said repeatedly when he was at the helm of transportation department that it was up to Congress to figure out to pay for a long-term transportation. 

The former transportation secretary said Tuesdy that he respects his former boss’ opinion, but he said a gas tax hike would be a more permanent solution to the transportation funding problem.

“He’s got his own ideas about this,” LaHood said of Obama’s opposition to increasing the gas tax. 

“Everybody in Washington has an idea about it,” he continued. “I like the idea of raising the gas tax 10-cents a gallon. We need a strong six-year transportation program, well-funded. If you raised the gas tax 10-cents a gallon and indexed it to the cost of living, you raise about a billion additional dollars [per] year. That would be very helpful.” 

-This story was updated with new information at 11:39 p.m.