Yesterday, the House began voting on amendments for a transportation funding bill, and the final vote is expected to come late tonight (after much more amendment voting).
The bill, which the New York Times editorial board condemned earlier today, authorizes funding for transportation projects for six years but provides money for only the first three. And as Congress refuses to raise the gas tax (which has not been raised since 1993), they have resorted to various budgetary gimmicks:
To make up for the shortfall in revenue, the Republicans who control Congress are resorting to various budgeting gimmicks. The bill before the House, for example, would raise $9.1 billion by selling oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, $5.7 billion by increasing customs fees and $17.1 billion by cutting a dividend that the Federal Reserve pays banks that are required to buy stock in the Fed’s regional reserve banks. Another $2.4 billion would come from telling the Treasury secretary to use private debt collectors to collect unpaid back taxes.
Strategies like these have almost nothing to do with transportation. Compared to reliable, long-term funding sources like the gas tax, they are mostly short-term, one-shot measures. And they do not make sense, fiscally speaking. Why, for instance, sell oil from the petroleum reserve at a time when oil prices have fallen sharply? Private tax collection was tried unsuccessfully in the 1990s and 2000s when it lost money and led to abusive practices.
The bill also contains a number of provisions that would be harmful to transportation safety: it prevents the Department of Transportation from publishing safety ratings of trucking and bus companies, makes it more difficult to raise the minimum insurance requirements for trucks and buses, and lowers the age requirement for driving trucks across state lines from 21 to 19 ½.
Below, I've chronicled a few of the interesting roll call votes from yesterday's amendment voting. I'll do another post later today or tomorrow with today's votes.
Weakening Environmental Review
Paul Gosar (AZ-04) offered an amendment to require the federal government to track the total number, cost, and time required for each environmental review of transportation projects when reporting the status of these projects to the public. This is basically just a way of trying to bog down the environmental review process and give Republicans numbers they can cite in attack ads.
It failed 196 to 225.
195 Republicans and 1 Democrat—Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)—voted for it. 180 Democrats and 45 Republicans voted against it.
Promoting Tourism
Corrine Brown (FL-05) offered an amendment to create a National Advisory Committee on Travel and Tourism Infrastructure which will advise the Secretary of Transportation on infrastructure needs related to the use of the nation's intermodal transportation network to facilitate travel and tourism.
It passed 216 to 207.
177 Democrats and 39 Republicans voted for it. 203 Republicans and 4 Democrats voted against it.
Here are the 4 Democrats:
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Pete DeFazio (OR-04)
Gwen Graham (FL-02)
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)
Pipeline Safety
Stephen Lynch (MA-08) offered an amendment to provide for an additional, independent safety review of an approved pipeline route or segment of route, should a state or tribal government deem it necessary.
It failed 160 to 263.
153 Democrats and 7 Republicans voted for it. 235 Republicans and 28 Democrats voted against it.
Here are the 28 Democrats:
Brendan Boyle (PA-13)
G. K. Butterfield (NC-01)
John Conyers (MI-13)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Joe Courtney (CT-02)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Pete DeFazio (OR-04)
Rosa DeLauro (CT-03)
Mike Doyle (PA-14)
Eliot Engel (NY-16)
Elizabeth Esty (CT-05)
Gwen Graham (FL-02)
Al Green (TX-09)
Gene Green (TX-29)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)
Dan Lipinski (IL-03)
Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM-01)
Ben Lujan (NM-03)
Donald Norcross (NJ-01)
Ed Perlmutter (CO-07)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Raul Ruiz (CA-36)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Albio Sires (NJ-08)
Marc Veasey (TX-33)
7 Republicans voted for it:
Ryan Costello (PA-06)
Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08)
Chris Gibson (NY-19)
Walter Jones (NC-03)
Leonard Lance (NJ-07)
Robert Hurt (VA-05)
Mark Walker (NC-06)
Heavy Trucks
Reid Ribble (WI-08) offered an amendment to give states the option of increasing the truck weight limits on their Interstate Highways from 80,000 pounds to 91,000 pounds.
Opponents cited safety a key concern:
Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), whose urban district includes Boston, noted that many metropolitan commuters use interstates alongside the "humongously long trucks."
"Now, if you want your moms and dads and kids to be driving next to them, that's your prerogative in your state. I don't want them in my state," Capuano said.
….
Safety advocates have sought to block the increase, arguing that heavier loads would make trucks more likely to crash. They applauded lawmakers for rejecting the highway bill amendment on Tuesday evening, calling the vote against the proposal "a resounding rejection of bogus arguments by the trucking and shipping industry that heavier trucks would be safer trucks.
"Members of the House listened to the American public, law enforcement, truck drivers, trucking companies, rail interests, rail labor, safety groups and families of truck crash victims," the Washington, D.C-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said in a statement after the vote.
It failed
187 to 236.
168 Republicans and 19 Democrats voted for it. 162 Democrats and 74 Republicans voted against it.
Here are those 19 Democrats:
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Joaquin Castro (TX-20)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Marcia Fudge (OH-11)
Gwen Graham (FL-02)
Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15)
Ron Kind (WI-03)
Annie Kuster (NH-02)
Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Jared Polis (CO-02)
Raul Ruiz (CA-36)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Adam Smith (WA-09)
Filemon Vela (TX-34)
Tim Walz (MN-01)