Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that amount of money the federal government will fall short by for funding infrastructure projects is falling, although she said lawmakers will still have to come up with billions of dollars later this year.
“Today I learned from my staff that the deficit in the trust fund is less than we thought it would be,” Boxer said during a Senate hearing. “We were anticipating $18 billion a year over six years, it’s $13 billion a year over six years. If we can’t find that, I think it’s a 1.2 trillion budget for discretionary spending, to build the infrastructure, we have failed as a Congress.”
Boxer was speaking during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting that was dedicated to identifying solutions to the transportation funding shortfall.
{mosads}The California lawmaker, who announced recently that she is retiring after 2016, told the panel that time is running out.
“We are getting perilously close to the bankruptcy of the Highway Trust Fund May 31,” she said. “If you go to the bank and you’re going to buy a house, and the bank says ‘oh great we’ll lend you the money, but only for five months,’ you’re going to walk away.”
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was testifying at the hearing and he took Congress to task for passing only short-term transportation bills in recent years.
“America is in a race. Not just against our global competitors, but against the high standards of innovation and progress our nation has shown for generations,” he said during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about transportation funding issues.
“We’re behind in that race and when you’re behind, you have to run faster and do more than just keep pace,” Foxx continued.
Congress passed an eight-month, $11 transportation bill last year that is currently scheduled to expire in May.
Foxx said Wednesday the 2014 measure was far short of the amount of funding that is necessary to address the nation’s infrastructure needs.
“Last year we sent Congress a comprehensive multiyear proposal –the GROW AMERICA Act, which included 350 pages of precise policy prescriptions and substantial funding growth, all focused on the future,” he said.
“What did America received in response was a ten-month extension with flat funding, which while averting a catastrophe falls short of meeting the countries needs,” Foxx continued. “The transportation system doesn’t care about the political challenges or the funding challenges of addressing its need. From its perspective, and from mine, we are either meeting its needs or we’re not.”
The Obama administration has opposed the idea of asking drivers to pay more at the pump to finance transportation projects, as have most Republican leaders in Congress. Transportation advocates believe the Obama administration privately supports the proposal, though Foxx stuck mostly to his corporate tax reform plan on Wednesday.
Transportation advocates have argued that raising the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax, which has been the traditional source for funding infrastructure projects, would be the easiest way to close the nation’s transportation funding shortfall.
The gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and it has struggled to keep pace with infrastructure expenses in recent years as cars have become more fuel efficient.
Boxer said Wednesday that she agreed wholeheartedly with Foxx’s perspective on the transportation funding issue, though she did not address the debate about raising the gas tax to pay for infrastructure construction.
“We have to have the courage, in the Senate and in the House, to fund a multi-year bill,” she said. “We cannot leap over that idea to an extension.”
Foxx for his part said he just wanted lawmakers to find a viable long-term solution to the transportation funding shortfall.
“The transportation system doesn’t care about the political challenges or the funding challenges of addressing its need,” Foxx said. “From its perspective, and from mine, we are either meeting its needs or we’re not.”
“In order for the system to be as good as the American people, we must do something dramatic,” the DOT chief continued. “To hell with the politics.”