Talk is cheap. And boy do members of the House and Senate like to talk.
Especially when it comes to passage of a multi-year highway bill, which transportation stakeholders continuously say would provide them with additional business opportunities and instill in them the necessary confidence to make long-term investments.
Congress talked a lot this summer about finally passing a multi-year highway bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) steered the latest movement for one. He faced a July 31 deadline to get a six-year measure through both chambers of Congress.
House Republicans put up a wall against the Senate proposal July 27, though, because of an amendment attached to the bill reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the House would not take up the long-term proposal because of the amendment. In addition, McCarthy said the House planned to recess July 30 – the day before the Highway Trust Fund was set to expire.
Another proposed amendment to the Senate’s six-year bill emerged July 27, when Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) filed one that would limit highway funding to three years.
In fact, the Senate bill is a six-year plan that only includes three years of committed funds.
“Only in Washington could you square a six-year bill with only three years of funding,” Flake says. “Rather than find itself staring down another fiscal cliff in short order, the Senate ought to exercise some fiscal responsibility now.”
Ultimately, another highway-funding patch was the outcome that emerged on Capitol Hill. The House previously passed a five-month bill that the Senate could take up and pass to ensure the Highway Trust Fund did not run out. The Senate passed the five-month bill, and President Obama signed it.
Unfortunately for transportation stakeholders, they’ve heard this all before: A deadline approaches. Media reports surface of congressional activity on a highway bill. And then yet another patch is affixed to the Highway Trust Fund, putting off talks of a five- or six-year bill for another few months.
Transportation stakeholders hoped the talks would cease and that action would prevail. Unfortunately, the outcome was a highly familiar one on Capitol Hill.