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Reauthorizing the Nation's surface transportation programs is the
Administration's top transportation priority for this session of Congress.
The Administration is pleased that
S. 1173 is a 6-year bill, and that it addresses many of the President's
priorities as reflected in the Administration's proposal. For example, the
bill includes important environmental protection, welfare-to-work, and worker
protection provisions; and expands the uses of the highway and mass transit
capital funds. In addition, the Administration supports many of the safety
provisions under consideration by the Commerce Committee.
The Bipartisan Budget Agreement. The Bipartisan Budget
Agreement (BBA) between the President and the Congress increased highway
spending by $10 billion. While the Senate reported bill is more consistent
with the BBA than the 6-year bill considered by the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee, S. 1173 still exceeds the total transportation
spending levels assumed in the BBA -- including an additional $2 billion in
mandatory outlays. However, the Administration understands that it is the
managers' intent to modify the bill so that it remains within the bounds of
the carefully crafted BBA. The Administration supports this goal and urges the
Senate to craft a bill that is fully consistent with the BBA. The
Administration would strongly oppose amendments to the bill which would further
increase funding levels above those agreed upon in the BBA.
Amendment Concerns. The Administration commends the Senate for
retaining ISTEA's disadvantaged business enterprise goals and uniform
certification provision for highway projects, and strongly opposes any
amendments to repeal or weaken these provisions. In addition, the Admin
istration would oppose any amendments to weaken: the National Environmental
Policy Act, the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program
(including allowing single occupancy vehicle projects to receive funding under
the Program), or the Clean Air Act. The Administration is also committed to
retaining ISTEA's labor standards and employee protection requirements
afforded working people on federally assisted projects (including those
assisted by State infrastructure banks), and would oppose any amendments
repealing or limiting these protections. The Administration would also oppose
changing the transit formula by adopting any form of minimum allocation for
transit.
Major Concerns. The Administration supports Senate passage of a
6-year transportation bill, but will seek amendments to S. 1173 to address the
concerns described below and the additional concerns discussed in the
attachment.
- The bill should be modified to be fully consistent with the Bipartisan
Budget Agreement.
- The bill's safety provisions should be strengthened by -- retaining the
unbelted crash testing requirement; penalizing repeat drunk driving offenders
at the same blood alcohol level as first offenders; including the
Administration's criteria in the seat belt incentive program for States to
increase seat belt use rates; and eliminating the special exemption from the
Federal seat belt use law for New Hampshire.
- S. 1173 should be amended to authorize the full $2.2 billion requested by
the Administration for the Appalachian Development Highway System, and the full
$161 million requested for National Park roads and parkways. The funding
levels currently authorized in the bill are inadequate to support these
important programs.
- The bill should provide additional flexibility to State and local
governments in establishing hiring preferences for in-State welfare recipients,
in order to meet the aggressive targets included in the recent welfare reform
law.
Finally, the Administration supports the use of alternate fuels to improve our
nation's air quality, and therefore strongly supports the extension of the
excise tax exemption for ethanol (but without phasing down the rates of the
benefits).
Pay-As-You-Go Scoring. S. 1173 as reported would increase direct
spending; therefore it is subject to the pay-as-you-go requirement of the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. Therefore, if the bill were enacted
and these costs are not offset during the remainder of this Congressional
session, a pay-as-you-go sequester would be triggered at the end of the
session. OMB's preliminary scoring estimates of this bill are presented in
the table below. Final scoring of this legislation may differ from these
estimates.
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