Last week the US House of Representatives passed HR 22, as amended by the House Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform (STRR) Act. The vote was 363 yeas to 64 nays. The House debated and disposed of over 120 amendments that were made in order. One amendment that would have increased STP funding and increased the percentage (to 60% in 2021) suballoacted by population was not made in order despite significant support from many members of the House, as well as a number national associations who were advocating for the amendment. While this was a disappointment both the House and Senate bills do increase the percent (to 55%) of STP suballocated. However, only the House version actually increases the dollar amounts for STP suballocation. Another amendment would add the reduction or mitigation of storm water impacts on surface transportation.
However, of all the amendments made in order, the most significant amendment offered was by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX). The amendment strikes several of the Senate DRIVE Act revenue raisers and replaces them with a single pay-for that would increase federal revenue by a net $40 billion over ten years by requiring the liquidation of the Federal Reserve’s surplus capital account and deposits those funds into the general fund of the U.S. Treasury. The amendment passed 354 yeas to 72 nays. The amendment could provide enough revenue (with the remaining DRIVE Act revenue) to fund a 6-year bill at the STRRA levels (inflation/1%). Going in to the debate on the floor this week the assumption was that only a three-year bill could be funded using the DRIVE Act revenue raisers. A question that has now arisen is should Congress use this new funding to write a 5-year bill (still meets the long-term bill request by AMPO) at higher than inflation levels, invest more dollars in infrastructure, and establish a new, higher transportation funding baseline going in to 2021.
House and the Senate appointed conferees:
|
HOUSE |
SENATE |
|
Shuster (PA) |
Inhofe (OK) |
|
Duncan (TN) |
Thune (SD) |
|
Graves (MO) |
Hatch (UT) |
|
Miller (MI) |
Murkowski (AK) |
|
Crawford (AR) |
Fischer (NE) |
|
Barletta (PA) |
Barasso (WY) |
|
Farenthold (TX) |
Cornyn (TX |
|
Gibbs (OH) |
|
|
Denham (CA) |
Boxer (CA) |
|
Ribble (WI) |
Brown (OH) |
|
Perry (PA) |
Nelson (FL) |
|
Woodall (GA) |
Wyden (OR) |
|
Katko (NY) |
Durbin (IL) |
|
Babin (TX) |
Schumer (NY) |
|
Graves (LA) |
|
|
DeFazio (OR) |
|
|
Norton (DC) |
|
|
Nadler (NY) |
|
|
Brown (FL) |
|
|
Cummings (MD) |
|
|
Larsen (WA) |
|
|
Capuano (MA) |
|
|
Napolitano (CA) |
|
|
Lipinski (IL) |
|
|
Cohen (TN) |
|
|
Sires (NJ) |
(Democrats in italics)
OUTLOOK
Congress has until November 20 to reconcile the differences between the two bills, produce a conference report (legislation), pass the conference report through both chambers of Congress, and send it to the President for his signature. The House is on a district work break for the Veterans Day holiday but the staffs are beginning to prepare the paper and negotiate the issues. Staff will attempt to reconcile as many issues as possible and present them to the Members when they return on November 16th.
Transportation committee staffs have already contacted AMPO on several issues as they try and work through the bills.
