House Committee Approves Controversial Highway Bill
This week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved, by a close party-line vote of 29-24, a five year, $260 billion bill to fund the nations’ surface transportation programs of which California’s share would be approximately $18.3 billion). Specifically, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act (H.R. 7) would reauthorize and fund federal highway, transit, and rail programs through 2016. The funding levels proposed are consistent with current year spending, but are less than the Senate two-year bill, MAP 21. The heated mark-up, which lasted over 17 hours and 100 amendments, continued to highlight the ongoing contentious relationship between the parties in the U.S. House of Representatives. While highway bills have traditionally been overwhelmingly supported by both sides of the aisle, as noted by Committee Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-W.V.), HR 7 is drawing serious opposition because it would partially be paid for by a series of new domestic oil and gas drilling proposals, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.
Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said that he expects the bill to be considered by the full House in the coming weeks. The House and Senate would then have to work out their differences, including bill length and funding offsets. RCRC, the California State Association of Counties, and the National Association of Counties continue to advocate for county priorities including funding for county bridges and high risk rural road safety. For a summary of H.R.7 can be found at, click here.
For additional information, please contact Melissa White at <a href="mailto:mwhite@rcrcnet.org