Dems warn of highway shutdown consequences

Democrats on the House Transportation Committee warned Republicans of the consequences of allowing federal infrastructure funding to dry up this summer. 

Lawmakers are meeting Tuesday to search for a way to pay for an extension of the surface transportation bill that is currently scheduled to expire in May. 

The top ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), said the consequences of allowing the road and transit funding to expire would be dire. 

{mosads}“Spring starts in a week and that really is the traditional beginning of the construction season for the year,” he said. “States have already notified the federal government that they will be delaying or postponing or canceling projects. I expect the number of canceled or delayed projects will only grow over the coming weeks if we don’t have a short-term bill.

“Yes we have a common objective on a six-year bill, but just to get to the end of this year with current anemic levels of spending, will require slightly less than $10 billion,” DeFazio continued. 

The looming transportation funding deadline is a source of consternation across Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are struggling to come up with a way to pay for at least a temporary extension of a nearly $11 billion transportation bill that was approved last summer that is now set to expire on May 31. 

DeFazio told the panel Tuesday that it would take a least a similar amount of funding now to convince states to keep projects that are scheduled to begin around the expiration of the measure on the books. 

“We need some sort of a commitment from the federal government in the next week or two or three of $10 billion or we will see a dramatic drop off in construction activity this summer,” he said, noting that inaction would cause the cost of construction to be higher later. 

“Much of this infrastructure is deteriorating at a rate that accelerates at certain points in its deterioration,” DeFazio said. “Suddenly what was a $1 million problem this year becomes a $5 million problem next year becomes a bridge replacement problem next. I feel a tremendous sense of urgency.”

Transportation advocates have lamented the number of short-term transportation funding bills that have been approved in recent years, but they have said the patches are better than a partial shutdown of most federal infrastructure programs. 

Congress has not passed a transportation bill that last longer than two years since a four-year 2005 measure expired in 2009, including the $11 billion 2014 measure that is now scheduled to expire this year. 

The Department of Transportation has said its Highway Trust Fund will out of money without at least a temporary extension of the infrastructure funding bill. The fund, which is used to pay for most infrastructure projects, takes in revenue from the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax. 

The gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and has struggled to keep pace with rising construction costs as cars have become more fuel-efficient. 

Lawmakers have introduced a series of bills recently to extend the expiring transportation funding measure, but they have not yet coalesced around a specific funding source. The idea of nearly doubling the federal gas tax to help pay for construction projects has been discussed, but many lawmakers are reluctant to ask drivers to pay more at the pump. 

Additional proposals from the White House and lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) rely on the idea of taxing overseas corporate revenue through a process known as “repatriation” to pay for a new round of road projects.  

Lawmakers on the transportation committee are hearing testimony at Tuesday’s hearing from state transportation officials from North Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.

-This story was updated with new information at 3:18 p.m.