By Ron Thaniel
May 9, 2005

Action Alert Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (IA) and Ranking Member Max Baucus (MT) will offer an amendment to increase SAFETEA authorized spending from $284 billion to $295 billion. Contact your Senators and urge them to support the Shelby'sarbanes effort on the pending Grassley-Baucus amendment to set transit's share of total highway and transit funding no lower than 18.8 percent, the ratio in the bill that passed the Senate last year.

With a slow start the week of April 25, the Senate's version of the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), known as SAFETEA, (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005), was marked by a significant victory for metro areas struggling with contamination of drinking water and cleanup of streams, rivers, lakes and ponds from highway stormwater discharge.

The Conference of Mayors supported Highway Stormwater Discharge Mitigation Program reserves a modest amount of funding, about $867 million out of $284 billion over five years, to support stormwater improvement projects on the federal aid highway system to reduce pollution that is discharged from highways.

A target by the highway and road builders, the Highway Stormwater Discharge Mitigation Program is championed by the Conference. Absent some commitment to retrofitting existing facilities on the federal aid system during the reauthorization of TEA-21, stormwater pollution cleanup costs will be borne largely by local taxpayers through property taxes, other general taxes and wastewater utility user fees. These include pollutants such as oil and grease, heavy metals, and sediments,

Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond (MO), Chairman of the Senate's Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, offered an amendment that would have struck the provision in the Highway Stormwater Discharge Mitigation Program requiring states to spend two percent of their highway money to alleviate pollution runoff from highway stormwater discharge.

Senator John Warner (VA), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee and senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who authored the Highway Stormwater Discharge Mitigation Program, wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter, with Senator Lincoln Chafee (RI), that this "dedicated source of funding for highway runoff is vital as states and municipalities continue to struggle to come into compliance with the water quality and stormwater requirements of the Clean Water Act." In other words, without the funding from the Highway Stormwater Discharge Mitigation Program metro areas would be levied another unfunded mandate.

When the Senate resumes debate on the reauthorization of the nation's highway and transit programs on May 9, the Senate will likely consider an effort by Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (IA) and Ranking Member Max Baucus (MT) to raise SAFETEA funding from $283.9 billion to about $295 billion.

To this likely effort, the Administration, through the Office of Management and Budget, reiterated a possible veto if the bill exceeds the $284 billion figure.

The Conference strongly supports an effort by Senator Richard C. Shelby (AL), Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Senator Paul Sarbanes (MD), Ranking Member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, on the pending Grassley-Baucus amendment to set transit's share of total highway and transit funding no lower than 18.8 percent. This is the ratio in the bill that passed the Senate last year.

The Senate may complete action on SAFETEA May 12 or 13. This leaves a closing window for conference with the House transportation bill, the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (HR 3 — TEALU), before the current extension expires May 31.