House Approves TEA-21 Renewal Plan, Conferees Expected to Begin Negotiations After Easter Recess

The U.S. House of Representatives April 2 approved legislation (H.R. 3550) to renew the nation’s surface transportation law (TEA-21), proposing to allocate more than $275 billion in federal funds for highways, bridges, transit and safety programs over six years.

After two days of debate and consideration of 23 pending amendments, House members passed the legislation by a vote of 357-60, an action that now sets the stage for Senate and House negotiations on a compromise bill. When Congress resumes work after the Easter recess, the House and Senate will appoint their respective leaders or conferees to begin negotiations to hammer out a final conference agreement.

As approved by the House, H.R. 3550 provides $51.5 billion for transit programs, about $217.5 billion in obligation limitations to the states for highway programs, another $4.4 billion for state equity funds and emergency relief, and the remaining funds for research, safety and other activities. According to the Administration’s estimates, the House bill authorizes a total of $284 billion, well above the $275 billion that Speaker Hastert agreed to bring to the House floor and the Administration’s request of $256 billion.

Importantly, the House bill more closely aligns available budget authority, which includes apportionments to the states, with funds that can actually be expended (e.g. obligation limitations, guaranteed spending). This alignment of authorized spending with actual spending authority has been a priority for the STPP coalition.

During the House debate, Members largely dismissed the Bush Administration’s objections to the bill’s funding level, its "trigger" provision to force spending hikes next year as well as other key concerns. To view the Administration's Statement of Policy (SAP) on H.R. 3550, go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/108-2/hr3550sap-h.pdf

STPP and its coalition partners have given the final House bill mixed reviews, while acknowledging positive provisions that seek to respect existing law protections and standards for the environment and communities, most notably for clean air, parks, recreation areas, and wildlife and waterfowl refuges, and that affirm the rights of resource agencies to fulfill their obligations under other statutes.

Importantly, H.R. 3550 preserves the basic ISTEA/TEA-21 program structure, although it diminishes resource commitments to funding the core program categories. It includes selected new initiatives such as the $1 billion commitment to a new Safe Routes to Schools program and a small pilot program for Transit in Parks that have been STPP coalition priorities. It provides for strong funding commitments to the transit program, follows the 80/20 funding split between highways and transit and retains the 80/20 matching share for all projects. For STPP President Anne Canby's statement on the legislation, please go to: http://www.transact.org/news.asp?id=45
 

House members from states that expected further progress on the donor/donee issue through upward adjustments in TEA-21’s minimum 90.5 percent rate of return failed to amend H.R. 3550 during Committee action and during floor debate. Rep. John Mica (R-FL) withdrew his equity amendment during Committee markup and an amendment offered by a group of Members, led by Johnny Isakson (R-GA), was defeated on a 170-251 vote.

As passed by the House, TEA-21’s minimum guarantee of at least 90.5 percent return is preserved, but it applies to a smaller base of funding. TEA-21’s minimum guarantee applied to about 93 percent of total highway dollars, as opposed to 84 percent under H.R. 3550. Funds for special member projects were in the base in TEA-21 but are excluded under H.R. 3550. In addition, H.R. 3550’s shifts a larger share of the new dollars to fund new categorical programs, such as projects of national and regional significance and dedicated truck lanes. Funds for these programs, which total more than $23 billion, will be directed by Members of Congress and/or by the Bush Administration, rather than allocated by program formula to the states.

Committee leaders did pledge to make adjustments to provide more certainty for states that fall under the minimum guarantee, explaining that higher resource levels are key to providing more assurances to these states.
 

Given the structure of H.R. 3550 and its emphasis on the establishment of new programs that will not be allocated to the states by formula, there is some erosion of the funding commitment to the core program categories, including the Surface Transportation Program and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.

In addition, unlike the Senate approach, the House elected not to allocate all of the equity funds back to the core programs. The emphasis on new categorical spending, combined with not allocating unprogrammed dollars under the minimum guarantee program, delivering more modest gains for the five core programs under H.R. 3550. To illustrate this point, STPP prepared a funding chart that depicts the relative funding under the core programs under TEA-21, the Administration’s SAFETEA bill, the Senate’s SAFETEA bill (S. 1027) and the House’s TEA-LU bill (H.R. 3550). To view the STPP chart, go to:  http://www.transact.org/PDFs/core_program_comparison.pdf
 

Prior to floor action, the House Rules Committee heard from House Members who wanted to offer 59 amendments to the bill, approving only 23 for consideration by the House of Representatives.

One amendment proposed by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) sought to guarantee clean air funding to local areas under the CMAQ program, but the Committee did not rule this amendment in order for action on the floor.

Johnson’s effort was aimed at requiring states to commit fair share (i.e. proportional obligation) funding to the CMAQ program and ensure that larger metropolitan areas were assured of annual funding (i.e. suballocation), similar to the provisions now in effect for larger areas under the Surface Transportation Program.  

During the House floor debate, however, Rep. Johnson did get a commitment from Rep. William Lipinski (D-IL), one of the Transportation Committee leaders, to revisit the underspending of CMAQ dollars and related issues in a future bill, such as a technical corrections bill or the reopener bill next year. To view Rep. Johnson’s colloquy on the House floor, go to:  http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2004_record&page=H1808&position=all

House Approves Funding Disclosure Change

In the end, the Rules Committee made 23 amendments in order, which were subsequently debated and acted upon during deliberations on the bill. While a handful of amendments were accepted by Committee leaders during floor action, most were defeated, either by voice vote or by recorded vote.

One that was accepted was another Johnson amendment that requires the Federal Highway Administration to report annually to the public on the use of federal transportation funds by the states, an amendment strongly supported by  STPP and many other organizations. Specifically, it amends current law requirements that the Federal Highway Administration deliver its Section 104(j) annual use of funds report to the public at the same time it is delivered to Congress, requiring that this information be made available via the Internet in a "user-friendly format." To view the debate, go to:  http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2004_record&page=H1984&position=all
 

The House did approve a large "Managers' Amendment" that included additional changes and modifications to the Committee-adopted bill that passed earlier in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In this package were provisions that provided for the additional revenues for the bill as well as provisions negotiated with the House Science Committee on the research title including a strengthening of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

The managers’ package also provided additional member project earmarks and some support for short line railroads. There were further revisions to environmental provisions of the bill, such as the inclusion of a 5-state pilot program on NEPA delegation that is limited to ITS and Transportation Enhancement projects. On clean air, areas are given 12 months before a conformity lapse occurs and there is a requirement that the MPO and air agency must agree before the current 20-year conformity horizon in long-term plans is reduced to 10 years.

U.S. PIRG Report Finds that Expanding Roadway Capacity Results in More Tailpipe Emissions

A report released last month from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) finds a clear and highly significant link between roadway capacity and air pollution from cars and trucks. The report, "More Highways, More Pollution: Road-building and Air Pollution in America's Cities," analyzes FHWA data on major roadway capacity and EPA data on air pollution, and reviews the current academic literature examining road building and traffic congestion.

Contrary to claims by the American Highway Users Alliance that adding roadway capacity will reduce tailpipe emissions, the PIRG report shows that road building actually exacerbates air pollution by inducing additional motor vehicle travel. Emission reductions achieved through improving traffic flow are outstripped by the overall growth in miles traveled. According to PIRG’s analysis, if large metro areas continue to expand roadway capacity over the next decade by 14.6 percent (the average rate of growth for urban areas during the 1990s), they could expect to see emissions of smog-forming pollutants grow by nearly 11 percent.

To read the PIRG report, please visit http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=12484&id3=USPIRG&