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HOUSE OKS
ADDITIONAL HIGHWAY FUNDING – BILL WOULD RESTORE $8 BILLION, ABATE TRUST FUND
SHORTFALL
A bill to help prevent a shortfall
in transportation funding won overwhelming approval in the House of
Representatives July 23. The final vote total was 387-37.
The bill, H.R. 6532,
restores $8 billion to the Highway Trust Fund to avert an expected revenue
shortfall in the coming fiscal year. Such a shortfall could be as high as $14
billion, more than one-third of the originally projected revenues, according to
a press release issued by Rep. James Oberstar’s office.
“Earlier this year, the
President’s budget estimated a shortfall of $3.2 billion by the end of FY 2009.
Since then, gas prices have risen dramatically, and Americans are driving less.
In fact, Americans have driven 20 billion fewer miles overall this year. As a
result, gas tax revenues are down -- $2 billion less was collected during the
first eight months of FY 2008 compared to the same period in FY 2007,” said Rep.
James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure. “This unexpected and severe decline in revenues makes it
even more critical that we take decisive action now to ensure the solvency of
the Highway Trust Fund.”
“This is not the time to
reduce our pathetic investment in infrastructure. There are 150,000
structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges on our roads today,
trucks are being rerouted because of weight restrictions, and people are wasting
hours and high priced gas idling in traffic,” said Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (Ore),
Chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. “Without H.R.6532, Oregon
was facing a loss of $139 million in funds for highway projects and nearly 5,000
living-wage jobs. I am pleased the House has acted to restore these funds to
the Highway Trust Fund.”
The bipartisan bill
restores $8 billion in highway user-fee revenue that was taken from the trust
fund in 1998. It ensures that the trust fund remains solvent through the
current authorization period, which ends on Sept. 30, 2008. The bill now goes to
the Senate.
HOUSE PASSES $1 BILLION BRIDGE BILL
On July 24, the U.S. House of
Representatives passed a bill which would add $1 billion to the federal-aid
highway program. “The National Highway Bridge Reconstruction and Inspection Act
of 2008” (H.R. 3999) specifies that all proceeds are to be used for
reconstruction of structurally deficient bridges on the National Highway
System. In addition, the bill requires annual inspection of structurally
deficient bridges, establishes training and qualification standards for bridge
inspectors, creates uniform bridge management and data systems, requires
prioritization of bridge projects, and establishes performance-based bridge
management systems. The bill also places restrictions on states' ability to
transfer federal bridge program money to other types of projects. The bill
prohibits earmarking of the new money by Congress for specific projects. The
legislation was introduced in response to the collapse of the I-35 bridge in
Minneapolis. The bill must now be approved by the Senate, where it is likely to
face stiff opposition.
SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
The Senate Finance Committee's
Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure held a hearing July
24 to explore the role of public-private partnerships in financing highway
projects. The hearing focused specifically on the federal taxation aspects of
PPPs. Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) expressed strong concerns
about the practice of governments leasing highways to the private sector. He
was particularly concerned that federal depreciation benefits in the U.S. tax
code appear to be driving lessors to demand "exceedingly long lease lengths."
Bingaman stated, "I question how, with respect to a critical artery of
interstate transportation, a state can possibly predict its future needs for a
period that is twice that artery’s operating history. It is impossible to
envision how transportation will change in the next hundred years." He added,
"...if depreciation rules lead to forms of investment that we judge to
contravene public policy, then the Finance Committee should consider changing
those rules..." Bingaman also criticized the practice of including non-compete
clauses in lease agreements which discourage government agencies from making
improvements to transportation systems which could draw traffic away from the
leased facility. He also criticized the U.S. Department of Transportation's
promotion of PPPs as an alternative to the current system, stating that for
states with small populations and large land areas, this approach is not
feasible.
CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON MEDICAL
OVERSIGHT OF COMMERCIAL DRIVERS
On July 24, the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee held a lengthy hearing focused on the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) medical oversight program for commercial
drivers. Three government witnesses—one each from the Government Accountability
Office (GAO), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FMCSA—provided
testimony and then responded to dozens of questions during a Q&A period, which
was sometimes contentious. The GAO witness testified on a recently released GAO
study entitled, “Commercial Drivers – Certification Process for Drivers with
Serious Medical Conditions,” in which the Agency highlighted 15 case studies
where appropriate medical evaluations did not occur on commercial drivers who
were receiving full disability benefits for serious medical conditions. NTSB
testified on previous crash investigations that led the Board to make eight
specific medical oversight recommendations to FMCSA, some as long ago as 1999,
which have not yet been acted upon to the satisfaction of NTSB. The FMCSA
witness—the Agency’s Chief Safety Officer--communicated the status of the
Agency’s regulatory efforts to: (1) link a driver’s medical certificate with
his/her CDL record; (2) create a national registry of certified medical
examiners; and, (3) to improve and update the medical standards that apply to
drivers. During the Q&A period, Committee Chairman James Oberstar was
remarkably aggressive toward the FMCSA witness and directed the Agency to
complete the medical oversight regulations in the very near future. ATA expects
FMCSA to issue a final rule before the end of 2008 requiring States to obtain
and link each driver’s medical certification with their CDL record.
OIL SPECULATION LEGISLATION PASSES
SENATE TEST VOTE
Legislation meant to crack
down on oil speculators passed a key test vote in the Senate 94-0 on July 22,
CNN reported.
Sen. Byron Dorgan of North
Dakota, one of the Democrats sponsoring the bill, said the quickest way to lower
prices at the pump is to stop speculators from driving up the price of a barrel
of oil.
The bill reportedly would
provide more resources and authority to the Commodities Futures Trading
Commission to detect and punish speculation, stop speculators from using foreign
markets to manipulate the price of oil in the U.S., require more transparency in
oil markets and limit the trading of market players who do not intend to take
delivery of the oil they purchase, CNN said.
Testifying on behalf of
ATA before the House Committee on Agriculture, ATA Senior Vice President Tim
Lynch asked the Federal government July 11 to implement a plan that ensures
transparent petroleum markets free from excessive speculation and manipulation,
cuts petroleum demand and expands the petroleum supply.
Lynch testified that the
current price of petroleum is no longer driven purely by supply and demand and
that excessive speculation may be contributing to the rapid increase in the
price of oil. ATA believes that increasing the transparency of the petroleum
market combined with reasonable position limits could help burst any speculative
bubble that has formed. ATA asked Congress to consider the merits of expanding
government oversight of electronic petroleum exchanges and requiring the CFTC to
establish position limits that ensure adequate liquidity while reining in
excessive speculation. |
