Senate Dems slam GOP highway patch proposals

A group of Senate Democrats slammed Republicans on Thursday for considering a temporary patch of federal transportation funding that is scheduled to expire May 31. 

Republicans in the House have raised the possibility of passing an $11 billion stopgap that would extend funding until the end of the year, but Democrats in the Senate said GOP leaders should be working on long-term extension. 

“Where’s the Republican plan? What are they going to do?” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) asked during a press conference at the Capitol.  

{mosads}”Ten months ago, they told us we needed to this 10-month patch so that they could figure out what to do for a long-term [bill],” he continued. “They said they would come in with a plan. Where’s their plan?” 

Cardin said a transportation funding patch that lasts until the end of year would be ineffective because it would expire just as the 2016 presidential primaries are ramping up. 

“How does that help us, be closer to an election when we’re going take it up?” he said. “Now’s the time to take it up, not another patch. And how are they going to pay for a short-term patch? We’ve heard ideas like cutting postal service and picking on federal workers, but that’s not the way to deal with the transportation programs of this country.” 

The transportation funding deadline has been a source of consternation in Washington for most of the year. 

Lawmakers in both parties have expressed a desire to prevent an interruption in the federal government’s road and transit spending, but they have been struggling to come up with a way to pay for an extension.

The traditional source of transportation funding has been revenue collected by the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and its buying power has been sapped by improvements in car fuel efficiency in recent years. 

The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in $34 billion. 

Lawmakers have turned to other areas of the federal budget to close the $16 billion gap, but transportation advocates have complained the temporary patches are making it too difficult for state and local governments to plan long-term construction projects. 

Transportation advocates have suggested raising the tax or at least indexing it to inflation would be the easiest way to close the infrastructure funding shortfall, but Republicans have said asking drivers to pay more at the pump is a nonstarter for them. 

Democrats in the Senate said Thursday that Republicans should offer a plan to pay for a long-term transportation extension if they do not want to raise gas taxes, though they have not coalesced around a funding source either.

“We have ideas, but it takes two to tango,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “Our Republican colleagues are the majority. We think they should be putting forward a plan. … We’re giving them broad outlines. We’re telling them it shouldn’t be flat funding. We’re telling them it shouldn’t be a patch. But we need to hear what they’re going to say.” 

Schumer backed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) threat to block consideration of fast-track trade legislation until the Senate first passes bills addressing infrastructure and surveillance programs. 

Reid has said the Republican-led Senate should be considering legislation to renew the federal government’s infrastructure spending and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before they take up the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership because the former issues are facing firm deadlines. 

“The trade bill doesn’t have the kind of deadline that either the highway bill or the FISA bill do, so by moving to the trade bill, we’re simply asking what are the plans of the Republican leader to deal with these two issues, both of which expire on May 31,” Schumer said, adding that Democrats are ready to negotiate over a funding source for a long-term transportation bill. 

“There are number of people that have different ideas in our caucus, but they need to put forward something,” he said. “We’re not going to negotiate against ourselves.”  

The Department of Transportation has said it will have to begin cutting back on payments to state governments for construction projects that are already underway in late July or early August if Congress does not reach a deal to extend infrastructure funding.