Newly-minted House Speaker Paul Ryan got his first legislative win Thursday: A
long-term transportation funding bill, something that hadn't been accomplished in about a decade. The bill guarantees six years of funding, though it only actually pays for three years. The three years of pay-fors aren't terribly popular, either.
The bill is in fact financed with a collection of offsets that many lawmakers find objectionable, such as raising $9 billion by selling oil from the country's emergency oil reserves. Roughly $2.5 billion comes from requiring the Internal Revenue Service to use private debt collectors, reviving a controversial program opposed by many Democrats, consumer groups and the union that represents agency employees.
Higher gasoline taxes aren't in the mix. That source of revenue that was taken off the table after the House Rules Committee, which is controlled by the speaker, blocked any amendment votes related to taxes.
The House also approved an amendment from Reps. Bill Huizenga (R., Mich.) and Randy Neugebauer (R., Texas) to scrap a plan opposed by banks that would have reduced the dividend the Federal Reserve's regional banks pay on stock that private-sector banks hold as members of the Fed's system. Instead, the bill would tap funds from the Fed's excess reserves.
Basically, that's a
$17 billion payout to banks, while sending the IRS out after citizen taxpayers. The Senate version of the highway funding bill would have eliminated those payouts in favor of infrastructure. But intense lobbying from the banks—and the opposition of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen—worked in the House.
But at least some of the worst financial reform rollbacks, like gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were eventually left out. Somewhat surprisingly, the bill also includes a renewal of the Export-Import bank, a loss for hardline extremists in the House. That renewal will help sweeten the whole deal for Senate conferees, making it likely that this can come out of a Senate-House conference and be signed by President Obama before November 20, when the current funding runs out.