Heritage Action to key vote Senate highway bill

The conservative group Heritage Action is key-voting a massive highway bill that is moving through the Senate this week.

A key vote is a congressional vote used by interest groups to rate lawmakers.

The group said it objects to both the measure’s size and price tag of the must-pass roads bill, as well as the possible inclusion of non-transportation related provisions such as the controversial Export-Import Bank. 

“The 1,000+ page, $317 billion bill would reauthorize highway and transit programs for six years while increasing spending, revenue and deficits,” the group vote in a blog post that was published as the Senate was voting on Wednesday to begin debate on the measure.  

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] also promised the bill would serve as a vehicle to resurrect the now-expired Export-Import Bank,” the blog post continued. 

“The federal highway program is fundamentally broken, and the Senate’s approach would lock in the status quo for another six years,” the statement said. “It does nothing to reform the bloated, unsustainable federal highway and transit system. The bill simply kicks the can down the road, masks its irresponsible nature with gimmicky offsets, and creates bigger ‘cliffs’ for lawmakers to tackle in the future.” 

GOP leaders are scrambling to meet a July 31 deadline for new highway funding.

The multi-year highway bill being proposed by the Senate includes approximately $47 billion in offsets from other areas of the federal budget to help pay for new highway funding over the next three years. The Senate voted Wednesday to proceed with debate on the measure in a critical test vote that appeared in doubt for most of the day proceeding the roll call. 

The proposal relies largely on revenue from reducing interest rates paid by the Federal Reserve to large banks, selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that is used to prevent energy crises and directing fees from the Transportation Security Administration and customs processing. 

Heritage Action said the proposed offsets are “one of the most concerning elements of the bill. 

“The bipartisan legislative summary proclaims the bill ‘does not increase the deficit or raise taxes,’ but the bill only bails out the bankrupt federal Highway Trust Fund for three years,” the group wrote. “Within that three-year period, just 10 percent of the bill’s $47 billion in offsets come in the form of real spending reductions.” 

Lawmakers are trying to close a shortfall in federal transportation funding that has been estimated to be about $16 billion per year. 

The main source of transportation funding for decades has been revenue that is collected by the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and more fuel-efficient cars have sapped its buying power. 

The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in approximately $34 billion annually.

The Senate proposal calls for taking $16.3 billion from the interest rate changes, $9 billion from the sales of reserve oil, $4 billion from customs fees, $3.5 billion from TSA fees and $1.9 billion from extending guarantees on mortgage-backed securities that had been scheduled to start declining in 2021.

Other funding sources in the measure include approximately $7.7 billion in tax compliance measures. 

Heritage Action said lawmakers have oversold the impact of the potential offsets on the transportation funding shortfall. 

“Near-term deficits will increase because of this deal, since all of these pay fors are spread out over the next decade, while the spending increases occur over the next three years,” the group wrote. “Additionally, the bill essentially assumes oil will sell at nearly $89 per barrel while current prices hover around $50 per barrel.” 

Heritage Action and other conservative groups have supported proposals to gradually eliminate the gas tax in recent years to transfer responsibility for transportation projects to state and local governments. 

The concept, commonly referred to by transportation observers as “devolution,” would lower the gas tax to 3.7 cents in five years and replace current congressional transportation appropriations with block grants.