Dems file Obama’s long-term highway bill ahead of House patch vote

Democrats introduced a long-term $478 billion highway bill that has been proposed by President Obama ahead of a scheduled House vote Wednesday on a temporary patch for the nation’s infrastructure spending. 

Lawmakers face a July 31 deadline to keep funds flowing for highway projects, and they have struggled to come up with a way to pay for an extension of the spending. 

Obama has proposed a measure that calls for spending $478 billion over the next six years on the nation’s roads and bridges, but Republicans in the House have opted instead to try to pass an approximately $8 billion highway patch that would extend federal transportation spending until December.

{mosads}House Democrats said Obama’s long-term proposal would allow states to plan large construction projects that are badly needed better than the GOP’s proposed patch. 

“The GROW AMERICA Act would make the critical investment necessary to improve America’s crumbling infrastructure and put millions of people to work at good paying jobs,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is also a candidate for Senate in Maryland in 2016. 

“It also makes a significant down payment on that investment by cracking down on companies that try to renounce their American citizenship to avoid paying their fair share in taxes,” Van Hollen continued. “Together, we can finally stop governing by crisis, create jobs, rebuild our roads and bridges, and bring America’s infrastructure into the 21st century.”

Republicans have largely ignored Obama’s transportation proposal because they disagree with his mechanism for paying for the new round of infrastructure spending. 

The Obama plan would supplement revenue from the 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax that has traditionally been the source of transportation funding with a process known as “repatriation,” which would tax corporate profits being held overseas at a 14 percent rate.

Republicans have said they are open to the president’s repatriation idea, but they have said the taxes should be collected at a lower rate and on a voluntary basis in the form of a “tax holiday” for companies that return profits to domestic banks. 

GOP leaders in the House are proposing instead a package that relies on $3 billion worth of savings from Transportation Security Administration fees and $5 billion in tax compliance measures to road projects through Dec. 18. 

The Senate, meanwhile, has worked on a longer six-year, $275 billion transportation funding measure, but lawmakers in the upper chamber have not yet revealed how their legislation would be paid for.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said the highway patch will allow lawmakers more time to craft a long-term transportation bill that is built around repatriation. 

“Our members want to do a long-term highway bill, but I think everybody realizes you can’t pass that in two weeks, so we’re going to have to do a patch,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman told reporters last week. 

“I think through the end of the year is the smart way to do that,” Ryan continued. “We’ll produce that very soon and it will be done in a way I think that can easily get bipartisan support.” 

Democrats in the House said Wednesday that Obama’s plan is the most viable option for passing such a long-term transportation bill in the near future. 

“This bill represents what the House should be taking up today on surface transportation,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said in a statement. “The bill provides certainty by authorizing highway, transit, and safety programs for six years. It is what States, counties, cities, construction contractors and transportation workers want. Not a five month stop-gap, which is what Republican leadership brought to the floor.” 

Congress has been grappling since 2005 with a transportation funding shortfall that is estimated to be about $16 billion per year, and lawmakers have not passed a transportation bill that lasts longer than two years during that span. 

The gas tax has been the main source of transportation funding for decades, but the tax has not been increased since 1993 and more fuel-efficient cars have sapped its buying power.

The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in approximately $34 billion annually. 

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated it will take about $100 billion, in addition to the gas tax revenue, to pay for a six-year transportation funding bill.

Lawmakers have turned to other areas of the federal budget to close the infrastructure funding gap in recent years, but the result has been a string of more than 30 temporary extensions, which have riled transportation advocates.   

Democrats blamed the string of patches on Republican resistance to long-term transportation spending proposals like Obama’s measure. 

“House Republicans have continually kicked the can down the road when it comes to fixing our crumbling roads, bridges and public transit,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said. “Today, I’m proud to introduce legislation with Reps. Van Hollen, [Sandy] Levin [D-Mich.], DeFazio and [Del.] Eleanor Holmes Norton [D-D.C.] that will invest in our infrastructure, boost our economy and provide jobs over a six-year period. This will provide hardworking Americans with the certainty they need to get ahead and stay ahead and ensure that we are continuing to compete in the global economy.”