Senate Floor Statement on Transportation, Student Loans and Flood Insurance
Friday, June 29, 2012
Mr. President, the bill before us today takes several important steps in several policy areas to move our nation forward. It prevents a pending student-loan interest rate hike that would make college less affordable for American students and their families. It makes important investments in our roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure, investments that will put Americans to work today and make our economy more competitive for years to come. And it reauthorizes the flood insurance program that provides security to millions of Americans, while making the program more efficient and more fair to states such as Michigan that for too long have paid more in premiums than they receive in benefits. While this legislation does not include everything I had hoped for or supported, it makes significant progress on issues our constituents need us to address.
Millions of Americans will be relieved that this bill avoids a looming increase in student loan interest rates. On July 1, those interest rates are scheduled to double, an increase that Americans already struggling to pay for higher education simply cannot afford. Extending the current 3.4 percent interest rate for another year lifts a significant burden, financial and emotional, from students and their families who were looking to us for aid.
I am pleased Senate and House conferees have come to an agreement on a transportation reauthorization. Reauthorization of our nation’s transportation programs is long overdue.
Investing in transportation infrastructure creates jobs and improves our international competitiveness. We create more than 35,000 jobs for every $1 billion in federal funds we spend on transportation infrastructure. The bill will create or preserve an estimated 3 million jobs nationwide. In Michigan, the bill will provide more than $2 billion over the next two years for road projects, and another $261 million over the next two years for Michigan transit projects. Funding transportation infrastructure improvements at robust levels is one of the most obvious things we can do to help boost the U.S. economy.
The conference report extends federal surface transportation programs at current levels, with a small adjustment for inflation, through September 2014. Given the difficult budget climate this has to be viewed as a victory. Our state transportation agencies need to be able to do long-term planning. This bill helps that cause, and is surely better than the short term extensions we have been living under. Given the negative budget climate and the difficulty we had finding the revenue to offset the Highway Trust Fund shortfall, a two year bill is what is possible, though I would have preferred a longer term bill.
I am pleased the agreement includes a provision that would direct the Corps of Engineers to accelerate its feasibility study of preventing the inter-basin transfer of invasive of aquatic invasive species, such as the destructive Asian carp, between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes basins. While the Corps is planning to produce an interim report at the end of 2013, this provision would require a full feasibility report that would also include a recommendation for implementing preventative measures. Accelerating this study will put us on a better track to protect our $7 billion Great Lakes fishery that supports thousands of jobs.
The conference agreement includes a provision regarding harbor maintenance that is based on an amendment to the Senate transportation bill. This is the first time we have addressed harbor maintenance in a transportation bill, and including this language will help elevate this important issue and strengthen momentum to use trust fund receipts for harbor maintenance.
I am disappointed, however, that the provision in the conference agreement does not include the strong enforcement language I urged conferees to include that would ensure that appropriators actually include funding for harbor maintenance that is collected for this purpose.
Navigation infrastructure is a vital link in the transportation system, one our economy depends upon. Maintaining our harbors and ports is vital to our economic competitiveness. I will continue to work to ensure that we provide sufficient federal funds to properly maintain our harbors.
The conference agreement also extends for one year mandatory PILT funding, or Payments in Lieu of Taxes, that will provide about $4 million to Michigan local governments to help offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable Federal lands within their boundaries. These payments can help support a variety of infrastructure and educational needs. I had urged conferees to include this provision in the bill, and I am pleased it was included in the final agreement.
The conference report should provide some much needed equity to Michigan and other states through a five-year reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program.
Michigan residents have paid more than six times more in premiums than they have received in payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program. We must correct this disparity, and the conference report takes some steps to do so in requiring that premiums be more reflective of the true risk of flooding.
The conference report will phase out subsidies for “repetitive loss properties” that continue to be rebuilt in high risk areas. It will also phase out subsidized rates for vacation homes and businesses located in high risk areas, many of which have received subsidized rates for more than 30 years.
This bill will clarify the law to allow property owners to purchase flood insurance from a private insurer, rather than the federal government, if they so choose. This means private companies can compete with FEMA to offer consumers a better price.
Finally, I am very disappointed that the conference report removes an offshore tax provision that I authored with Senator Conrad to fight against tax evasion. This provision, which was included by voice vote in the Senate bill and is similar to a provision that I introduced as part of a broader offshore tax bill, was scored as raising over $1 billion over ten years, and could have helped pay for transportation programs or reduced the deficit. I am disappointed that Congress has yet again missed an opportunity to fight offshore tax evasion, which robs billions of sorely needed dollars from our Treasury each year.
The legislation before us today does not include everything I had hoped for or supported, but it is necessary, and we should pass it without further delay.