Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District

Issues

Transportation

Update

18 November 2004

Investment in our surface transportation infrastructure will help to ease congestion, improve roadway safety, and prevent further deterioration of our roadway system. I am hopeful that we will be able to provide a reauthorization package that will adequately address these needs.

Unfortunately, the Transportation appropriations bill appears to be dead for the year. It is not impossible for a lame duck session to consider this bill in the months after the election, but because the most recent extension carries the existing highway program through January 2005, it is likely that Congress will wait and allow the newly sworn-in Congress to take up the bill next year.

To recap, the House of Representatives passed a transportation bill (HR 3550) that contains a funding level of $284 billion over the next six years, while the Senate passed a version of the bill (S 1072) that contains a funding level of $318 billion over the next six years. The Conference Committee, which is comprised of members from the House and the Senate, is trying to negotiate the difference between the bills so that both Chambers may vote on the compromise version. Obstacles remaining to final passage of the bill include the fact that the Bush administration will not support anything above the $256 billion funding level that it originally sought, the insistence of lawmakers from states which contribute more to the Highway Trust Fund than they receive from the Fund that their states receive at least a 95 percent return on the funds that they contribute, and questions about how funds would be apportioned if an amount lower than the Senate’s funding level was ultimately approved.

The Administration's initial reauthorization request is inadequate; I favor full funding of the reauthorization. While the Administration’s tax cuts have left us in a severe spending crunch due to outstanding deficits, cutting spending on infrastructure investment is not the best solution. The Administration's FY2004 budget requests the same level of funding for the Federal Transit Authority as it received for FY2003. We need greater funding in order to maintain the status quo, and more if we are to accommodate growth in transit demand. Another issue that concerns me is that the FAST program was included in the House version of the bill, but not in the Senate version. I have supported this program over the years, and it should be included in any bill prepared for final passage.