WASHINGTON — In a rare display of deal-making between Republicans and Democrats in a bitterly partisan election year, the Senate was poised to pass an overhaul of highway and transit programs that would give states more flexibility in how they spend federal money and would step up the pace of road construction by shortening environmental reviews.
Even the measure’s sponsors — California Democrat Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe — come from opposite political poles. A vote on the bill is set for today.
“We are hopeful this will become a template for all of us in the Senate and the House to find the sweet spot where we can work together,” Boxer said Tuesday during floor debate.
The Senate marched through more than a dozen amendments, approving proposals to deny federal aid to privatized highways and to loosen safety regulation of agricultural trucks. A series of energy-related proposals were batted aside.
The bill would spend $109 billion over less than two years. That’s far below the level of spending that two congressional commissions have said will be needed if the U.S. is to maintain its aging roads and bridges and bus and train systems and expand the national transportation network to meet population growth between now and 2050.
The bill would increase the flow of highway aid to states by adjusting current spending levels to take into account inflation over the past several years. States would have greater discretion over how to spend the money, but the bill also would create new requirements aimed at preventing waste and making sure national goals are met.
A credit assistance program that helps leverage private investment for transportation projects of national and regional significance would be increased tenfold to $1 billion. In the past, the program has been able to generate as much as $30 in private capital for every $1 in aid, Boxer has said.
The measure also would reduce the number of federal transportation programs by roughly two-thirds in an effort to eliminate duplication.
One thing the bill doesn’t do is resolve how to keep the Federal Highway Trust Fund solvent beyond next year.
The bill would pay for programs through a combination of fuel taxes, cuts to other programs and tax changes but also would drain the trust fund.
Lawmakers are under pressure to act quickly. The government’s authority to raise money through fuel taxes and spend money from the trust fund expires March 31.
