Washington Fiddles as Infrastructure Crumbles By Zach Rosenberg Wired.com
October 16, 2009 | 6:30 am http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/10/transportation-bill-2/ America’s infrastructure is crumbling. The Highway Trust Fund, which finances the maintenance of our congested highways, flirts with insolvency. Innovative transit plans languish. And what is the government doing about it? Not much. The 2005 transportation bill, which carries the cumbersome name Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or Safetea, was an anachronism even when it was written. It placed a clear emphasis on building ever more expansive, expensive highways, and promoted policies that encourage auto-centric sprawl. The law was set to expire on Sept. 30, not a moment too soon. A replacement bill sponsored by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rep. John Mica (R-Florida) was released in June. The 775-page document, The Surface Transportation Authorization Act, draws both fanfare and trepidation and is widely considered a turning point in American transportation. The bulk of the bill is dedicated to maintenance rather than highway expansion and construction. Fully $100 billion was set aside for building and expanding mass transit. Another $50 billion is allocated for high-speed rail, dwarfing the $8 billion included in the stimulus package. The bill gives local authorities greater say in how their federal transportation dollars are spent. And our transportation policy would be legally tied to climate protection. The total tab comes to at least $450 billion, twice that of Safetea. Unfortunately, nobody has quite figured where that money will come from. The transportation bill is no small potatoes. It determines almost all of the federal government’s transportation spending, including the depleted National Highway Trust Fund. If we don’t have a spending bill, the money — much of which is distributed to state governments — stops flowing immediately. Everything from routine maintenance to new construction grinds to a halt. As it stands, Safetea’s funding mechanisms are running so low some state transportation departments already are cutting operations in anticipation of another extension. It would be difficult to overstate the scale of the problem we face. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation’s critical networks a D on its most recent Report Card for American Infrastructure. The group’s estimate that we need $2.2 trillion over the next five years to bring everything up to snuff is up from its $1.6 trillion estimate in 2005. Even in June, it was clear most of Washington would be too deeply enmeshed in health care policy to give the Oberstar bill serious thought. The Obama Administration, which has placed addressing climate change, transportation and infrastructure high on its to-do list, requested an 18-month extension of Safetea. Oberstar wasn’t unhappy and told Minnesota Public Radio in August, “I expect to have it on the floor by the third week of September. $450 billion over the next six years and the administration’s either going to come along or we’re going to roll them over.” So, here we are in October. Once it was evident Oberstar’s bill wouldn’t pass by Sept. 30, an extension of Safetea was inevitable. Oberstar sponsored the extension that passed the House by a wide margin, granting Safetea another three months. The Senate passed a one-month extension, and because the two houses couldn’t agree, the bill’s expiration was postponed until Oct. 30. And so Safetea, a paean to the individual motorist, lives on for another month. But like a zombie that won’t die, we’ll probably be stuck with it for longer. Many Senate Democrats appear to be following party line and pushing for an 18-month extension, and because everyone is focused on health care legislation, most pundits expect the Senate to match or exceed the House’s three-month extension. That will push any decision off until next year. By that time Congress will be gearing up for the November elections, in which more Democrats than Republicans are vulnerable. Big spending bills are always a tough sell and politics always grows nastier during election season, so the fight over the transportation bill could get ugly. That makes Obama’s 18-month extension sound like a good idea. However, the governing party historically loses seats in the midterms, and if the Democrats lose their narrow Democratic majority Oberstar’s proposal faces significantly greater hurdles. By passing Oberstar’s bill quickly, Congress can avoid a needlessly contentious battle, adopt some great policy and push our transportation system into the future. -- ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu *********************************** * POST TO [email protected] * *********************************** Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
