WASHINGTON — Congress has reached agreement on a transportation bill for the first time since 2005, averting a crisis that could have disrupted the nation’s highway projects in the height of the construction season.
In the final hours, Republicans dropped their demands to piggyback onto the bill approval for the Keystone oil pipeline and relaxation of proposed restrictions on coal ash produced by power plants.
In return, Democrats gave up on $1.4 billion for conservation and agreed to allow states more leeway in the way they use money that once was mandated for landscaping, bike improvements and pedestrian walkways.
While Republicans privately declared victory, the bill’s chief architect and advocate was more diplomatic.
“I am so glad that House Republicans met Democrats halfway, as Senate Republicans did months ago,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). “The bill is funded at current levels, and it will protect and create 3 million jobs.”
A top House GOP aide expressed a different view of the weeks of conference committee negotiations.
“At the end of the day, Senate Democrats fought for red tape, while House Republicans fought for jobs — and got some important wins,” said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could talk candidly.
“This bill is far from perfect, but it is a substantial improvement over the original Senate bill.”
The deal was struck in the shadow of a Saturday deadline, when federal highway funding was due to expire. It came after House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., ordered conference committee members back to the table after talks appeared to falter last week.
While the details of the conference committee bill will take several days to emerge, the legislation will streamline a federal system that expanded its network of agencies and programs in a patchwork fashion to meet immediate needs, producing a cumbersome bureaucracy that smothered state transportation projects.
The bill also provides greater incentives for corporations to partner with government to invest in major infrastructure improvements.
No one pretends that the new bill will provide sound long-term footing for the national transportation system. It will expire next year and it draws on several other pools of money to supplement the Highway Trust Fund.
The transportation bill relies on transfers of almost $5 billion from the general fund; almost $3.7 billion from a fund set aside to fix leaking underground storage tanks; almost $700 million from the gas guzzler tax, which targets new cars with poor fuel economy; and $4.5 billion from tariffs on imported vehicles.
The federal gas tax — set at 18.4 cents per gallon — funded the interstate system, but it was last increased in 1993, and Congress has had little interest in raising it.
