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The Source for Public Transportation News and Analysis April 20, 2012
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House Passes 90-Day Extension
BY PATRICIA DOERSCH, APTA Senior Legislative Representative

With the goal of passing a bill that allows the House to move to a conference committee with the Senate on a multi-year surface transportation authorization measure, the House April 18 passed a bill (H.R. 4348) authorizing a further 90-day extension of SAFETEA-LU through Sept. 30, 2012. The vote was 293-127, with 69 Democrats joining the Republicans for passage.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I), said on the floor during House debate: “Taking the other side at their word … passage of this extension of current law through the end of the fiscal year will allow us to go to conference with the other body.”

The 90-day extension of public transit and highway programs preserves the existing Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund and dedicated funding of the public transit programs from motor fuel receipts paid into this account.

The bill brought to the House floor also included provisions approving the permit of the Keystone XL pipeline and a modified version of the Senate’s RESTORE Act, which directs BP oil spill penalties to projects in states bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

Three amendments made in order by the House Rules Committee, all of which are included in the final bill, included one to incorporate the project and environmental streamlining provisions originally included in H.R. 7, the bill that T&I reported out in February. The others guarantee spending of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund receipts and shift enforcement responsibilities for federal coal ash rules to the states.

The amendment adding H.R. 7’s streamlining reforms was made after some Republicans expressed concern that House conferees would be left in a weak negotiating position if they went to a conference committee with “shell” legislation that lacked any of the substantive policy provisions included in the House committee-passed bill. House Democrats had sought to consider an amendment on the House floor substituting the text of the Senate-passed legislation—the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21)—for the House bill, but that effort was not allowed under the rule.

On Tuesday, the White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy on the bill threatening a veto over its approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Citing the funding uncertainty and job loss resulting from a prolonged series of short-term extensions, Rahall urged T&I Chairman John Mica (R-FL) to join him in sending a letter to the speaker urging expeditious appointment of conferees. Saying the message he hears from the American people is “Stop the bickering; stop the baloney; put people back to work,” Mica committed to act quickly to move the bill to conference.

FY 2013 Concurrent Resolution
Following through on his pledge to advance a budget resolution, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) marked up a concurrent resolution for Fiscal Year 2013 on April 18. It passed by a 12-10 vote.

This resolution includes a proposal from the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission to dedicate a 15-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase to the Highway Trust Fund and limit spending to revenues collected by the trust fund.

Conrad’s aim was to devise a budget blueprint that addresses the longer-term problem of debt reduction and averts $1.2 trillion in across-the-board “sequester” cuts to defense and non-defense spending.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has repeatedly asserted that the FY 2013 discretionary spending cap included in last year’s budget bill constitutes this year’s Senate budget resolution, so it is unclear if the concurrent resolution Conrad marked up this week will come to the Senate floor.

Conrad has objected to the FY 2013 budget resolution presented by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), saying that it breaks faith with last year’s budget deal by making significant additional cuts in spending and proposing tax cuts for the wealthy. Both Conrad and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) have told the House they will not move from their top-line discretionary spending number.

So, while it is unlikely that the House and Senate will reach an agreement on a budget resolution, Conrad’s concurrent resolution helps stake out the Senate’s position on the FY 2013 budget and frames the greater debt reduction debate.

Senate Subcommittee Approves THUD Appropriations
Progress on the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations process began in the Senate this week as appropriators marked up the FY 2013 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) appropriations bill in subcommittee on April 17. The subcommittee voted 15-1 to approve the bill, which next goes to the full Senate Appropriations Committee.

In the absence of authorization legislation for FY 2013, the $53.4 billion spending bill sets funding for highway and public transit programs at current levels. It appropriates $10.6 billion for public transit programs, including $2.044 billion for New Starts. In addition, the subcommittee approved bill provides:

* $500 million (equal to the FY 2012 funding level) for Significant Transportation Projects (the “TIGER” program) to support projects in a wide variety of modes, including highways and bridges, public transportation, passenger and freight railroads, and port infrastructure;

* $39.1 billion (equal to the FY 2012 funding level) for the annual Federal-aid Highway program to support essential investments in roads and bridges in every state across the country.

* $1.75 billion for rail infrastructure, including $100 million for the High Performance Intercity Passenger Rail grant program to assist states with the improvement of existing intercity services, congestion mitigation and multi-state planning initiatives and $1.45 billion for Amtrak;

* $150 million is provided for grants to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for capital investments, with the highest priority on projects that will improve the safety of the public transit system;

* $50 million within HUD’s Community Development Fund for the Sustainable Communities Initiative to promote integrated housing and transportation planning.

On the House side, appropriators are working with a lower discretionary spending limit under Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) House-passed 2013 budget resolution than on the Senate side. House appropriators await progress on the transportation authorization bill and are unlikely to move a bill before late May.
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