The legislation was announced in a statement issued by Chairman Don Young (R-AK), and Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN) of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Chairman James Jeffords (I-VT) and Ranking Republican Bob Smith (R-NH) of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. According to the statement, the bill "would require that spending on highways at least match the levels authorized in TEA-21."

House Committee Chairman Don Young said that the bill would "allow our states to continue to move forward on their important transportation projects and protect hundreds of thousands of American jobs in every region of the nation." He added that the bipartisan support in both the House and Senate "should be a strong sign that we are extremely serious in our dedication to restoring the highway funding level to the amount mandated in TEA-21."

Oberstar added "the guaranteed funding level is a floor, not a ceiling. TEA-21 specifically authorizes an additional $15 billion above this guaranteed level. The Highway Trust Fund can support significantly more investment in highway infrastructure." Oberstar went on to say that under the FY 2003 budget proposal, the Highway Trust Fund balance would "explode" to $33 billion in five years and $74 billion in 10 years. "This is unacceptable."

Jeffords said that "we can't afford to backslide on our commitment to the traveling public and to the jobs that the transportation system supports." He said that he hopes the bill will move quickly, so as not to affect states' construction programs.

Rep. Bob Borski, (D-PA), Ranking Minority Member on the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, noted that "TEA-21 provided long-term stable, predictable funding. Highway projects need this. They don't get built in weeks or days, it takes years. This decrease, if it stands, will undermine that fundamental concept."

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Chairman of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, pledged that his subcommittee "will get to work -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to fill the holes in the President's budget so that all states receive the highway funding levels they anticipated."

Also voicing support for the bill was Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of EPW's Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee.

AASHTO Applauds Effort

"AASHTO and its member departments are grateful for these members' willingness to help prevent the loss of thousands of jobs and the resulting setback in virtually every state's economy," said John Horsley, Executive Director of AASHTO. "At a time when our nation is looking for ways to boost its economy, sustaining highway investment is essential."

Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael Jackson told reporters gathered for a budget briefing at U.S. DOT that the prospective cuts result from a literal reading of revenue-aligned budget authority language in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. RABA, meant to ensure full spending of Highway Trust Fund revenues for transportation purposes, has delivered nearly $9 billion to the states over and above appropriated sums since TEA-21 went on the books in 1998; however, the falling economy coupled with overly optimistic projections by Treasury last year have triggered "negative RABA," which could cut about $8.6 billion from federal funds headed to states in a single upcoming year.

"Transportation is a key part of our economy, " said Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA), of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee. "Our transportation infrastructure affects our productivity and our quality of life, and when we make investments in our critical infrastructure we're laying the foundations for our future economic growth."

The Senate hearing featured Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael P. Jackson and newly appointed Undersecretary of Transportation Security John Magaw.

Jackson acknowledged concerns over the required adjustment to Highway Trust Fund spending in 2003. He said the president's $59 billion budget request for U.S. DOT is an eight percent increase over the 2002 budget, if TEA-21 formula adjustments for highways are excluded. "With those required adjustments, however, we are tightening out belts, specifically on highway spending," he said. "Most DOT programs will nonetheless see an increase in 2003."

Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) expressed concern over the effects of the proposed cut on his home state. Noting that he co-authored TEA-21's revenue-aligned budget authority provision -- the element that has triggered the potential cut in highway funding -- Bond said the object was to make sure Highway Trust Fund dollars were spent only for Highway Trust Fund purposes. The unforeseen potential cut "comes to almost a $159 million cut for Missouri, and that costs us directly about 6,600 jobs at a time when we cannot afford job losses, particularly when it is important to economic security."

Members of the Subcommittee expressed interest in adding new mechanisms to the law with which to project Highway Trust Fund revenue estimates.

"Clearly, restoring some level of reason to the Highway Account will be the biggest issue the transportation budget will face in fiscal year 2003," said Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-AL). "I understand that the budget request complies strictly with the law as articulated in TEA-21, but I'd actually hoped for a little more leadership on infrastructure investment than a blind devotion to a flawed highway authorization act."

Sen,. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he'd support some mechanisms that would tap the Highway Trust Fund to make up some of the shortfall. Jackson said U.S. DOT expects to tackle the issue when TEA-21 is up for reauthorization late in 2003.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) advocated a swift action. "Our economy is in a recession, if there ever is an appropriate time to consider putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work, now is not the time," he said.

Committee members also commented on their support for the new Transportation Security Administrator, John Magaw, but several still requested a more comprehensive breakdown of the president's budget request for $4.8 billion in funding for the Transportation Security Administration.

House Subcommittee Reacts

At a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Chairman Thomas Petri (R-WI) told Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters that the administration's proposed cut to highways in FY 2003 could be exacerbated by state budget woes. "There will be pressure to decrease state funding for highways, further multiplying the number of jobs lost," Petri said.

"We need to get the budget gamesmanship off the table," he added.

The House Highways and Transit Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday held the first of a series of hearings in preparing for the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Speakers included Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters, Federal Transit Administrator Jenna Dorn, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge, and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Joseph Clapp.

Subcommittee Chairman Thomas Petri (R-WI) said that retaining the integrity of the Highway Trust Fund and budgetary firewalls, keeping the minimum guarantee program, and continuing program flexibility and incentive-based approaches to safety were among his priorities in approaching reauthorization. New initiatives to be undertaken by the Subcommittee are improving revenue-aligned budget authority, providing specific directions in improving the environmental-review process, and providing stable funding for discretionary programs by preventing earmarking.

Much of the hearing focused on a FY 2003 budget proposal from the Bush Administration, which reduces highway funding by $8.6 billion due to "negative RABA" (see related articles). Discussion was held on the budgetary mechanisms of TEA-21, and the future risks associated with relying on a fuel tax-based system for funding highways.

Peters raised the role of the tax break on ethanol-based fuels in relation to the RABA problem. While part of the drop in Highway Trust Fund revenue stems from reduced truck-tax receipts, she said, the fact that ethanol consumption in 2001 jumped 28 percent also contributed. Ethanol is currently taxed 5.3 cents lower than the 18.4 cents per gallon assessed for regular gasoline.

Peters said the use of ethanol and the production of more fuel-efficient automobiles will likely continue in the future. She suggested that mechanisms should be included in reauthorization to study the issue so that possible recommendations or alternatives to the fuel-based system may be offered in the following reauthorization. "We should look for ways to diversify our portfolio," she added.

Peters also expressed her support for using Highway Account revenues for highways only, given the tremendous needs of the nation's highway system.

Streamlining, New Starts Addressed

Members of the Subcommittee questioned FHWA on efforts to improve the environmental review process for transportation projects. Peters assured members that streamlining "is a very important issue for me," and said she expressed her feelings to Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta before being appointed. She maintained that current delay in the environmenta- review process hampers economic growth.

Peters outlined activities already underway at U.S. DOT to improve the process, including dispute resolution, giving states and localities more authority to sign off on environmental reviews, and concurrent reviews by federal and state agencies. There is progress, she said, with the average time to conduct environmental impact statements (EIS) dropping by eight months.

Ranking Member Robert Borski (D-PA) asked Dorn about the department's proposal to reduce the federal/state match for new starts from 80/20 to 50/50. Dorn said that the proposal was included in last year's budget proposal, and the current average for federal/state match runs 53 to 54 percent. She said that the approach would allow more projects to vie for the limited amount of funding available.

Dorn acknowledged that she did not expect Congress to comply with the proposal, but termed it a "heads-up" for localities that it is likely to be incorporated into the administration's reauthorization proposal.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) failed to win the necessary 60 votes for the $69 billion Democratic-backed stimulus proposal; it went down 56-39. The Democratic bill had included the unemployment benefits extension and also featured limited business tax breaks, tax-rebate checks and an increase in Medicaid money to states, to help them balance their budgets.

A GOP alternative, passed by the House and backed by the Bush Administration - chiefly pegged to further tax cuts - also failed on a vote of 48-47. That approach called for $89 billion in accelerated tax cuts and rebate checks of up to $600 for lower-income Americans, with another $73 billion in stimulus-related spending to occur in 2003.

According to the Associated Press, Senate Republicans and Democrats weren't able to achieve compromise regarding the level of tax relief in the package and how to get aid to the jobless.

In remarks at the reception, which also featured the launch of the joint AASHTO-APTA publication "The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century in Action: Money at Work," all four members expressed their support for legislation filed earlier in the day that will help restore $8.6 billion in projected highway funding cuts triggered by the recessionary inversion of a TEA-21 feature known as revenue-aligned budget authority (see opening story in today's AASHTO Journal). RABA, as it is known, let states reap about $9 billion over the first three years of TEA-21, a six-year law. However, AASHTO member states stand to lose virtually an equal amount in 2003 alone if "negative RABA," triggered by U.S. Treasury estimates of lowered fuel taxes and large-truck sales tax revenue into the federal Highway Trust Fund, is allowed to stand.

Oberstar said that failure to act on the RABA issue "puts us below where we started. That is wrong. We'll be right back to where we were at the start of 1998 (when TEA-21 was passed) -- it rolls back all the progress that we've made." Oberstar said he and other sponsors of the proposed House and Senate RABA-repair legislation will take steps to head off those losses: "We can afford to make an investment in quality of life," he said.

Petri said if there is any silver lining to the threat the RABA situation poses, it is that it has helped pro-transportation groups band together as TEA-21 reauthorization looms.

"It's an early wake-up call. This can enable us to get organized at a higher state of readiness, sooner," he said. "No one in their right mind would propose, at any time, let alone at a time of economic slowdown, a one-third cut in transportation programs in one year," Petri said. "This will have a multiplier effect."

Borski agreed that rolling back the financing that makes TEA-21 successes possible is a bad idea at a time when the federal and state governments are struggling to find ways to beat back recession.

"TEA-21 works. It works every day, to make lives better, to make our commutes better," Borski said. "We simply cannot allow ... this budgetary trick, whatever you call it, to stand. No one in their right mind would do that - certainly not at this time of recession."

Blumenauer joined his colleagues in congratulating AASHTO and APTA for their collaboration on transportation financing issues. Americans need to understand the linkages between different modes and users of transportation and support the various players, he said: "As one rabidly green environmentalist, I'm working in my community on freight development," he noted.

Discussion centered on two papers commissioned by FHWA, "Transportation Infrastructure, Freight Services Sector and Economic Growth," by T. R. Lakshmanan and William P. Anderson of the Center for Transportation Studies at Boston University, and "Economic Effects of Transportation: The Freight Story," prepared by a team from ICF Consulting and HLB Decision-Economics.

Among the participants were Tom Norton, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Transportation and Chairman of AASHTO's Intermodal Transportation and Economic Expansion Committee; Parker Williams, the Administrator of the Maryland State Highway Administration and Chairman of AASHTO's Subcommittee on Highway Transport, John Horsley, AASHTO Executive Director, and Leo Penne, Director of Intermodal and Industry Activities for AASHTO. Other participants included leading transportation researchers and FHWA officials.

The Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Transit Authority invested in a comprehensive "system of transportation" -- including a renovation of Interstate 15 that stands as an example to the nation of speedy highway rehabilitation and was the first major "design/build" project to be completed in the nation.

Utah Governor Mike Leavitt has termed the Winter Olympics a springboard for the state's future prosperity. He said he will order one of the two Olympic flame cauldrons moved to the grounds of Utah's Capitol at the close of the games, which can be re-lighted "to proclaim an event of great significance or to simply remind us that Utah had a dream, that we reached for it and we made it ours."

Though extra work and planning went into security for the games following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, in fact much security planning had already occurred in Utah regarding the Olympics. The Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Transit Authority joined the Salt Lake Organizing Committee since the announcement that Salt Lake had been chosen to host the games in June, 1995 to ensure that a safe and complete transportation network exists.

The Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Transit Authority invested in a comprehensive "system of transportation" -- including a renovation of Interstate 15 that stands as an example to the nation of speedy highway rehabilitation and was the first major "design/build" project to be completed in the nation.

Utah Governor Mike Leavitt has termed the Winter Olympics a springboard for the state's future prosperity. He said he will order one of the two Olympic flame cauldrons moved to the grounds of Utah's Capitol at the close of the games, which can be re-lighted "to proclaim an event of great significance or to simply remind us that Utah had a dream, that we reached for it and we made it ours."

Though extra work and planning went into security for the games following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, in fact much security planning had already occurred in Utah regarding the Olympics. The Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah Transit Authority joined the Salt Lake Organizing Committee since the announcement that Salt Lake had been chosen to host the games in June, 1995 to ensure that a safe and complete transportation network exists.

"Safer roads - whether we are talking about filling in dangerous potholes or improving outdated freeway intersections - make driving safer for all Californians," said Mark Muscardini, President of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen.

The ballot measure has drawn support from groups ranging from the California Association of Highway Patrolmen and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California to the California Taxpayers' Association, the state business roundtable and the California Chamber of Commerce

"Safer roads - whether we are talking about filling in dangerous potholes or improving outdated freeway intersections - make driving safer for all Californians," said Mark Muscardini, President of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen.

The ballot measure has drawn support from groups ranging from the California Association of Highway Patrolmen and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California to the California Taxpayers' Association, the state business roundtable and the California Chamber of Commerce

"California's highway network plays an important role in supporting jobs and commerce across the nation," Davis wrote. "Our system serves as a commercial gateway from our ports and border crossings to all regions of the country. The loss of federal investment in California will clearly have ripple effects that would compound the effect of funding cuts in other states."