News from the Hill - Week of May 4, 2009

Passing along some news and impressions I got from taking part in a Transportation Transformation (T2) delegation which conducted Hill earlier this week.

On Monday we sat down with DOT staff from the Innovative Finance office and had Roy Kienitz, the newly confirmed Undersecretary for Policy take part. Roy was most recently chief of staff to PA. Governor Rendell but he has past DC history as a staffer to Sen. Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and he also played a major role at the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) which was responsible for much of the “enhancements” added to the federal aid program such as bike-paths, MPO sub-allocations, etc.. The takeaway from this meeting was that guidance is expected to be issued this week (not as of Friday @ 2 PM) on the disposition of the $1.5 billion worth of transportation discretionary funds authorized by the economic stimulus package. There has been some speculation that much of this will go to ports (otherwise overlooked in the stimulus bill) but there are also some hopes that it could be used to capitalize further TIFIA loans.

In talking about the DOT’s plans for the highway bill it was indicated the DOT’s submission will not talk about revenues at all. This based partly on the fact that they can only talk about what the Trust Fund can support – and current collections are running at a rate 25% below what SAFTEA-LU has authorized.

We also had a visit with the majority and minority staff of the Environment & Public Works Committee. What was gleaned there included: staff is working on their legislative package – Sen. Boxer is committed to working on a legislative package before the program expires but there is no explicit timetable for the Committee other than the Sept. 30 expiration of SAFTEA-LU. They have no further hearings planned at this stage.

Several weeks ago House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Oberstar’s offered comments during a Highways and Transit Subcommittee hearing indicating his belief that a Vehicle Miles of Traffic (VMT) pricing system could be put into place within 2 years and that Chairman DeFazio should convene a meeting of the “Think Tanks” to work on an action plan to bring this about. IBTTA submitted a letter to the House T&I leadership asking to be included in any such meetings and offered to host or convene such a meeting if it would be helpful. We received a response from the Subcommittee the other day as follows:

Thanks. How we proceed on VMT is still very open question. I will keep in mind as we proceed.

A news piece was issued earlier this week “clarified” Mr. Oberstar’s view’s on VMT:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Jim Oberstar’s office reached out to media outlets today to set the record straight on where the Democratic congressman from Minnesota’s 8th district stands on a measure that would tax drivers for miles traveled. “It seems that some members of the press mistook Mr. Oberstar’s questions and observations about the VMT [Vehicle Miles Traveled] as statements of policy, when he was actually gathering information.”

All in all it appears to me at this stage that the highway authorization efforts have just a few firm anchors:

· The current program expires on Sept. 30, 2009.
· Revenues to the highway trust fund are falling and the balance is expected to be effectively zero by September.
· Chairman Oberstar has promised to have a package available for consideration by early June. The first draft of this package was recently handwritten by the chairman on both sides of a single sheet of paper. Staff is currently working on translating this into something more substantive.
· The White House has said no to fuel tax hikes and VMT pricing. The Obama budget details released Thursday indicate that barring some other infusion of revenue to the Highway Trust Fund, they anticipate keeping it afloat either through internal general fund transfers or direct line-item funding.
· The US DOT highway bill will speak to “principles”, not specifics and will not address revenue.

None of this leads to me question my personal belief that a highway bill is unlikely to be approved until either a lame duck session in 2010, or in 2011.

-- Neil Gray