By Ron Thaniel
March 7, 2005

The U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a transportation measure on March 2 that would authorize $284 billion in federal highway, transit and road safety projects through 2009. Last year, the House measure called for a funding level of $275 billion over six years.

H.R. 3, "The Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users" now goes to the full House, which is expected to take up the measure next week.

The measure authorizes:

• $225.5 billion for the Federal Highway Administration
• $52.3 billion for the Federal Transit Administration
• $3.2 billion for the National Traffic and Highway Safety Administration
• $2.9 billion for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Those figures include roughly $86 billion already committed for FY04 — 05 by a series of extensions to TEA-21. Authorization for the federal highway, transit and safety programs expired September 30, 2003. Federal aid has been continued through short-term extensions. The current extension will expire May 31, 2005.

H.R. 3 put off the politically challenging decision of how to distribute that money among the states. It is widely expected, with further negotiations, that this will be taken up until the bill gets to the House floor.

It is unclear whether the Senate Environment and Public Works and Senate Banking Committees will mark up the highway and transit titles before the Easter recess, which begins March 18.

On March 3, the House Ways and Means Committee marked up the revenue title of H.R 3 with a "clean" extension of current law taxes and fees paid into the Highway Trust Fund through 2011. Historically, the tax title of the bill is authorized for two years beyond the authorization period of the bill. The Senate Finance Committee will also need to approve the tax title of the Senate's bill.

In a letter to Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young (AK) and Ranking Member James L. Oberstar (MN), Conference President Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and Conference Transportation and Communications Standing Committee Chair Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels wrote, "In the last ten years, U.S. metro areas have generated 87% of our economic growth, over $3.8 trillion É [and] generate over 85% of the nation's economic output, labor income and jobs."

The letter further said, "As this nation has grown, Americans have moved to cities and metro areas in great numbers. "Today, more than 83% of Americans live in a metro area," said the mayors."

"However, major transportation infrastructure challenges remain. Our metro economies need modern transportation infrastructure to secure the nation's future economic growth," noted Mayor Plusquellic and Nickels.

Resolving these challenges will require substantial investment in:

• Public transportation investment,
• Metropolitan infrastructure investment,
• Environmental investment, and
• Safety and increased public investment.

Go to usmayors.org to view the Conference's TEA-21 reauthorization policy.