By Ron Thaniel
September 29, 2003

With chances vanishing for a major surface transportation reauthorization bill this year, the U.S House and two Senate committees, Environment and Public Works and Banking, Housing and Urban Development, voted September 24 to approve a five-month extension for transportation programs. The vote would keep highway and transit programs operating beyond September 30.

As U.S.MAYOR goes to press, the Conference has been told that the Senate could take up the House bill as early as Thursday, September 25.

The House extension provides $14 billion for highways, $3 billion for Transit and $266.3 million for motor carrier safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration programs during the extension.

Under a provision in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), written to help ensure the next reauthorization would be completed on time, the Federal Highway Administration would be prohibited from approving new projects or allowing states to incur new obligations of contract authority until new legislation is enacted. Even if not extended, federal payments on contracts already awarded would continue.

No consensus exists on how to pay for a full six-year transportation authorization, including no agreement on whether to increase the gasoline tax, a major issue for the reauthorization. The highway fund, which draws its revenue mostly from taxes on motor fuels pays for most highway and transit programs.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is calling for a six-year transportation authorization of $375 billion which is dependent on increasing the current 18.4 cents per gallon federal gasoline tax. The Senate is proposing a six-year program calling for a transportation authorization totaling $311 billion.

Both measures are significantly higher than the Administration's request of $247 billion, and the White House has said it will veto a bill that includes a gas tax increase.

Provision in Extension That Could Undermine Local and Regional Transportation Plans Limited To Initial Five Month Extension

Contained in what is essentially a clean extension supporting the underpinning of TEA-21 was a controversial provision that would have given states maximum flexibility to move dollars between programs until a new transportation law is signed. The Conference successfully lobbied to limit this controversial provision to the initial five-month extension with the full restoration of funding when the next transportation law is passed.

In communications between the Conference, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) and the Surface Transportation Planning Project (STPP) to House and Senate Transportation Committees, the Conference expressed opposition to this provision because it likely would lead to the disruption of local and regional transportation investment plans, such as clean air compliance.

This authority needlessly invites states to make dramatic shifts in priorities, which would largely be borne by local and regional transportation partners.

A review of the 1997 transportation extension law shows that key programs for clean air (CMAQ), community building (Transportation Enhancements) and regional transportation investment (STP Allocated Funds to MPOs) were substantially and adversely affected.