FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 19, 2007
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison Passes One Year Texas Tolling Moratorium of Federal Highways
Bill Passes Senate Tuesday, will Pass House Wednesday, and Expected to be Signed into Law this Week
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the senior Senator from Texas, announced that late Tuesday the Senate passed a one year ban on the tolling of federal highways in Texas.
The specific provision passed as part of the FY2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which passed the Senate late Tuesday by a vote of 76-17, will pass the House Wednesday, and is expected to be signed into law by the President this week.
“Today we can say with certainty that Texas taxpayers are protected from paying twice for a federal highway,” Sen. Hutchison said. “I will continue working with my colleagues to push for a permanent prohibition of tolling existing federal highways.”
Five members of the Texas Congressional delegation, Reps. Chet Edwards (D-TX), Kay Granger (R-TX), Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX) and Nick Lampson (D-TX), helped push the provision through in the House, with their collective efforts saving this amendment’s place in the FY 2008 THUD Appropriations bill, which was included in the Omnibus.
On September 12, the Senate originally passed the Hutchison amendment that protects Texas taxpayers by placing a one-year moratorium on tolling existing federal highways in Texas. Sen. John Cornyn (R–TX) cosponsored Sen. Hutchison’s stand-alone bill.
Efforts to toll newly constructed lanes or new highways would not be prohibited in Sen. Hutchison’s amendment that passed the Senate, or in S. 2019 or H.R. 3510.
In February the Texas Department of Transportation released their legislative agenda in a report called “Forward Momentum,” which seeks changes in federal law that would allow tolling interstate highways.
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