Washington – The House passed a $286.4 billion highway and mass transit bill today that could provide long-awaited relief for the nation’s travelers while creating tens of thousands of construction jobs.
The 412-8 vote on the six-year surface transportation bill, to be followed later in the day by the Senate, would send the president a measure that will generate new federal money for every state working to expand and repair its roadways, bridges and rail systems.
It will lead to “safer roads that are built faster and last longer,” said House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. He noted that the ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep.
James Oberstar of Minnesota, arrived late for the debate because he was stuck in traffic.
Passage would end an almost two-year impasse during which Congress and the White House battled over the proper spending levels and states were at odds over how best to divide up the billions in federal highway money.
It was also delayed by a day after House lawmakers refused to vote on the package until a Senate-inserted provision to reopen an air base runway was eliminated.
“I can’t in good faith derail this important bill at this late hour,” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said today in acceding to demands that his provision reopening a runway at Malmstrom Air Force Base in his state be removed.
House lawmakers said the provision reversed a 1996 decision made under the military base closings process, a sensitive subject as Congress prepares to consider a new round of base closings that affect local economies around the country.
The president is expected to sign the highway measure, which covers the 2004-2009 period. “This is a piece of legislation that will help us meet our transportation needs over the next six years, and it will also keep us on track, or ahead of schedule, to cut the deficit in half,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday.
In addition to promising each state at least a 19 percent increase in funds over the 1998-2003 highway act, it includes a record level of “earmarks,” thousands of special projects requested by lawmakers for their states and districts and a frequent target of criticism by watchdog groups.
Taxpayers for Common Sense, which tracks such projects in the bill that runs more than 1,000 pages, said it has found 6,361 highway, bus and rail projects worth about $23 billion.
These projects range from a $200 million bridge near Anchorage renamed “Don Young’s Way” after the House Transportation Committee chairman, to $45,000 for improved circuitry at a rail crossing in Knoxville, Tenn.
Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said the Young bridge symbolized “the waste, graft and parochial politics in this transportation bill.” House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will see more than $200 million heading toward highway and interchange projects running through his district in northern Illinois.
The nation has been without a new transportation act since September 2003, when the 1998-2003 law, funded at $218 billion, expired. Since then, Congress has had to pass 11 temporary extensions to keep money flowing to the states for construction projects.
The White House stopped action on the bill in the previous Congress, balking at congressional requests for up to $375 billion in infrastructure spending. A compromise was stalled this year in a dispute among states over the most equitable way to divide federal highway money.
The legislation guarantees that by 2008 every state will get back at least 92 percent of what it contributes through federal gasoline taxes to the Highway Trust Fund. The current minimum rate of return is 90.5 percent, a rate that “donor” states that pay more in than they get back say is insufficient.
The two-year delay has disrupted schedules for new projects and prevented the hiring of tens of thousands of construction workers.
The bill contains more than $50 billion for transit programs – mainly bus and train projects – and $6 billion for transportation safety.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving said in a statement that it was pleased with several safety provisions, including $29 million a year to implement high-visibility law enforcement efforts to deter drunken driving and grant funds to states that pass a primary seat belt law – allowing police to stop vehicles for seat belt violations – or achieve a belt usage rate of 85 percent.
California Reps. Brad Sherman and Darrell Issa succeeded in inserting a provision allowing their state and others to open up car pool lanes to single occupancy hybrid vehicles.
But for lawmakers, the parts of the bill they most wanted people to know about were those listing projects for their states and districts.
Colorado projects in line for funding
Here are key Colorado projects receiving federal money in the transportation bill before Congress, out of nearly $2.5 billion designated for the state over six years. (These projects also may get additional money from state and local agencies.)
$14 million for widening and improvements to U.S. 50 in southeastern Colorado, including $12 million to widen the highway to four lanes from Lamar to La Junta.
$8 million for the Powers Boulevard/Woodmen Road interchange in Colorado Springs.
$7 million for improvements to Interstate 225 between Parker Road and Interstate 70.
$6 million for improvements to Interstate 25 between Denver and Fort Collins.
$6 million for the I-70/Colorado 58 interchange in Jefferson County.
$5 million for improvements to I-25 from the Douglas-Arapahoe county line to El Paso County.
$5 million for U.S. 24 improvements over Tennessee Pass in Lake County.
$5 million for Interstate 76/Northeast Gateway improvements.
– Mike Soraghan
