The bill passed by the Senate would reportedly "maintain or create" 2.8 million jobs.
In a rare show of bipartisan support, especially as the presidential election nears, the U.S. Senate gave solid approval to a long-delayed federal transportation bill that covers everything from highway construction to the collection of gas taxes.
Capitol Hill lawmakers have been struggling since 2009 to come up with an update to the law, and the 74-22 vote actually just authorized another 2-year extension that would funnel $109 million into everything from road repairs to mass transit programs. But even that compromise might not make it into law, Washington observers warn – adding that millions of jobs are at stake.
The House of Representatives, led by Speak John Boehner, R-Ohio, has been struggling to approve its own transport bill – to no avail. And even though the Republican speaker now says he’d be willing to consider the Senate’s language it is uncertain he can rein in enough of his own party members to push the extension through.
“If there was ever a piece of legislation that should not turn into a partisan fight, this is it,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.).
To proponents, the basic bill is the classic no-brainer. For one thing, it is funded by the money that the government collects on fuel taxes. And it would repay consumers by repairing the nation’s often crumbling road and bridge infrastructure, adding new highways, funding select mass transit programs – and providing for the continued collection of those fuel taxes. If the current law expires even that process would come to a halt.
But the Senate turned the process into a debate over a wide range of other topics, including tax credits for alternative energy producers. And the GOP attempted to tie an amendment to the bill that would have forced through construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline. Other Republican proposals would have gutted Clean Air Act protection against mercury pollution and opened up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil drilling.
On the surface, the House appeared to be moving towards a more comprehensive and long-term approach, rather than another stop-gap extension. It’s proposal would have provided $260 billion over five years. But among the more controversial proposals, it would have eliminated guaranteed funding for mass transit and tied such assistance to revenues expected to be raised from oil and gas drilling.
“We are all working together toward coalescing around a longer-term approach with needed reforms,” said Speaker Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel. “If we can’t get there, we may have to take up something like the Senate bill — but we’d prefer to take the responsible approach on this and get a longer-term bill through the House.”
The current transportation bill expires on March 31. Supporters of the Senate-approved, $109 million extension claim it will “maintain or create” 2.8 million jobs. Conversely, the failure to act in the House could put several million jobs at jeopardy.