Oberstar Suggests Mark Up Might Wait Until September;
Proposes $7.3 Billion for Trust Fund
By LUCAS WALL
AASHTO Journal
July 10, 2009
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar said Thursday he will strive to gain congressional approval this month to transfer $7.3 billion from the federal government’s General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund to ensure there is enough money available to reimburse states for obligated highway projects. Oberstar also said his six-year surface transportation authorization measure, which he had hoped to mark up in committee this month, might have to be pushed back until the fall.
Current federal transportation spending authority expires Sept. 30. Oberstar, D-MN, has been supporting enacting a new six-year measure by that deadline. But the Obama administration has called for a 1½-year postponement coupled with a $20 billion infusion to the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent through March 2011, a plan key senators have endorsed.
Oberstar opposes a long delay of authorization, but said Thursday that Congress needs to act quickly to shore up the trust fund so it does not run short of cash as early as next month. Declining tax collections from fuel and truck purchases have left the trust fund projected to run short of its obligations to states for project reimbursements before this fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
A $7.3 billion transfer would provide enough cash to keep the trust fund solvent through September plus provide a $4 billion cushion going into Fiscal Year 2010, Oberstar said. A similar transfer in the amount of $8.017 billion was made last September to reimburse the trust fund for money withdrawn for general government expenses a decade before.
Oberstar said his proposal will not need to be offset with spending cuts or higher taxes because it is considered an intergovernmental transfer, CongressDaily reported today.
Oberstar acknowledged he might need to postpone his committee’s mark up of the six-year authorization measure to September if the House Ways and Means Committee can’t find time this month to draft a revenue title to pay for the $500 billion proposal. To reach the House floor, both the T&I and W&M committees must report out their sections of the bill.
Lucas Wall can be reached at lwall@aashto.org or 202-624-3626
