By Ron Thaniel
July 27, 2009

With strong backing from the Obama Administration, the key Senate authorizing committees have completed their sections of an 18-month draft extension of the current surface transportation law, SAFETEA-LU, which is set to expire on September 30 of this year.

As U.S.MAYOR went to press July 23, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee marked up their section of the draft extension pertaining to mass transit programs today. The Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the section pertaining to safety on July 21, and the Environment and Public Works Committee approved the highway section on July 15.

An analysis by the USDOT shows that the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will be running short on revenue in late August or early September of this year. To extend the program 18-months at the baseline funding level will require $18 billion for the highway account and $2 billion for the transit account. The Senate Finance Committee introduced a measure on July 21 that would transfer $26.8 billion in funds from the general fund of the Treasury to the HTF. Under this measure, the Highway Account of the Trust Fund would receive $22 billion and the Mass Transit Account would receive $4.8 billion.

However, somewhat at odds with the Administration, the draft extension does not include reforms designed to improve data and transparency, and focus more investments in metropolitan areas. The Administration believes that through an 18-month extension opportunities can be created to put in place a limited set of reforms that can form the basis for further reforms in a full six-year authorization.

Yet another twist is that House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James L. Oberstar (MN) said only $3 billion is needed to patch the HTF until the end of September. Oberstar's proposal does not include an extension of SAFETEA-LU. Although the House Highway and Transit Subcommittee approved The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 on June 24, it has been and continues to be unlikely that Congress and the Administration could complete a multi-year authorization of the massive federal surface transportation law by September 30.

The current federal surface transportation program, which was authorized by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), was signed into law in 2005. The prior law, Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), was extended twelve times over two-years.