Congress has a lot of work to squeeze in the next few weeks starting today, having just returned from their July 4th recess and looking forward to the month-long August break. At the top of the list: transportation funding. Members in both parties are fed up with the new normal for funding infrastructure programs, a seemingly never-ending series of short-term bills. The most recent one expires July 31, and this time Senate Democrats and some House Republicans are
insisting the next one last at least several years.
Just coming up with the $11 billion needed to keep the federal highway program running until the end of the year—let alone fully addressing a national infrastructure riddled with crumbling roads and bridges—will be challenging, given the need to offset any spending increase with a corresponding cut or revenue increase.
But finding the $90 billion lawmakers need for the six-year highway and transit bill that Congress wants will be nearly impossible for a GOP that’s strongly averse to raising money with new taxes but has little room for further budget cuts. […]
"The problem with stop-and-go funding is, stop-and-go funding is very expensive," Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said in a phone interview Monday. "You don't just turn these projects on and off with the drop of the hat. … That’s why we need six years of certain, predictable funding."[…]
"It's just a real negative economically, and it's bad for the country," Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), who plans to vote against any bill that doesn't run for several years, said Monday. "We need to offer certainty."
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) are in charge of trying to find that certainty and are being tight-lipped at the moment about progress. A spokeswoman for Hatch's Finance Committee snipped that progress "will depend on Democrats' willingness to work with Republicans to find a responsible path that can pass on both sides of the Capitol and ensure continued service to the nation’s highway programs," ignoring the fact that they have a Republican problem, too.
This is playing out against the backdrop of a united Democratic front in the Senate to block spending bills until Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to negotiate on raising domestic spending levels in tandem with defense spending. Through a number of budget tricks, Republicans have figured out how to get around the spending limits imposed under the sequester—the 2011 budget agreement that's still in effect—to raise defense spending.
Stay tuned. July is going to be particularly hot and testy in Washington, D.C. this year.