McConnell on roads bill: ‘We can get there’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressed confidence on Monday that his chamber can pass a multi-year transportation bill before a Friday deadline for extending the funding.

“We’ve had to navigate especially difficult political terrain to get this far already,” he said during the opening of Senate’s session on Monday afternoon.

{mosads}”It hasn’t always been easy, but we’re now nearing completion of the Senate’s work on this bill,” he said. “If the bipartisan coalition supporting this fiscally responsible bill continues to cooperate, I know we can get there.” 

Lawmakers are up against a tight deadline for renewing federal transportation funding that is scheduled to expire on Friday.

The Senate worked through the weekend to try to pass the measure in time to sent it to the House before the lower chamber adjourns for the August recess on Thursday. The measure’s path to approval by week’s end has been fraught with complications because of procedural hurdles and controversial amendments, such as a provision reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.

The House has balked at the idea of including the Ex-Im bank in the highway bill and pushed the Senate to adopt its $8 billion temporary patch that would extend federal transportation funding until December. 

McConnell said Monday that he is confident the Senate can pass a long-term highway bill this week, despite the looming deadline. 

“Substantial numbers of Republicans and Democrats continue to support it, but time is running out to get this bill through Congress,” he said. “We’re up against a deadline at the end of the week, jobs are on the line … important infrastructure projects are too, so we have to get the job done, and we are.”  

The Senate’s version of the highway measure includes an approximately $47 billion package of offsets to supplement the gas tax revenue that has lagged behind transportation expenses for years. The offsets will only close the infrastructure funding gap for three years, however, so lawmakers will have to revisit the issue in 2018 if they want to make the measure a full six-year transportation bill. 

The Senate package relies largely on revenue from reducing interest rates paid by the Federal Reserve to large banks; selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, used to prevent energy crises; and directing fees from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and customs processing. 

The $8 billion patch that was passed by the House to fund road projects through Dec. 18, meanwhile, relies on $3 billion worth of savings from TSA fees and $5 billion in tax compliance measures.

McConnell said Monday that the six-year transportation bill that has been proposed by his chamber is “a good bill for our country,” despite the fact that it only has three years of funding. 

“There’s no such thing as a Republican road or a Democratic road,” he said. “No wonder Republicans and Democrats continue to rally around a bipartisan multi-year highway measure that’s fiscally responsible and won’t raise taxes. 

“The bill before us would streamline regulations, advance research and innovation in transportation, modernize infrastructure and transportation systems and inject new accountability measures so Americans can get a better handle on how their taxes money is being spent,” McConnell continued.

“This multi-year bill also reverses the trend of short-term, temporary patches, giving state and local governments the certainty and the stability they need to better plan road and bridge projects.”