Boehner: House took ‘responsible approach’ to highway fix

The House took a “responsible approach” to extending federal transportation funding when it passed a five-month patch this month, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday.

“I think the House passed a responsible approach last week to fund our highway program through the end of this calendar year and continue to work to get a long-term, fully funded highway bill in place,” he said.

“Obviously, the Senate feels otherwise. They’ve got a process underway, and we’ll see what happens.” 

GOP leaders are scrambling to meet a July 31 deadline for new highway funding.

The House has passed an $8 billion patch to fund road projects through Dec. 18. The proposal relies on $3 billion worth of savings from Transportation Security Administration fees and $5 billion in tax compliance measures.

The Senate has worked on a longer multi-year highway bill includes approximately $47 billion in offsets from other areas of the federal budget to help pay for new highway funding over the next three years.

The proposal calls for taking $16.3 billion from the interest rate changes, $9 billion from the sales of reserve oil, $4 billion from customs fees, $3.5 billion from TSA fees and $1.9 billion from extending guarantees on mortage-backed securities that had been scheduled to start declining in 2021.

Other funding sources in the measure include approximately $7.7 billion in tax compliance measures. 

Congress has been grappling with the transportation funding shortfall since 2005, and lawmakers have not passed an infrastructure funding bill that lasts longer than two years during that span.  

The main source of transportation funding for decades has been revenue that is collected by the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and more fuel-efficient cars have sapped its buying power. 

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

Transportation advocates have pushed for a gas tax increase to pay for a long-term transportation bill, but McConnell and other Republican leaders have ruled out a tax hike.

Congressional budget scorekeepers have estimated it will take about $100 billion, in addition to the gas tax revenue, to fully pay for a six-year transportation bill.