On September 30^th Congress passed, and the White House signed into law an eight month extension of the federal transportation legislation TEA-21. It marks the sixth extension of the law since it expired last Autumn. In contrast, TEA-21’s predecessor, ISTEA, was extended only once, for six months. Washington seemed hamstrung between the increasing needs of the country’s transportation system, the political allergy to raising new revenue for anything and political disarray among Republicans who exhibited a wide range of positions and instincts about the problem. In particular, the White House and U.S. House leadership could not reach accommodation over funding levels and how to pay for them with transportation committee members with relatively traditional deliver-the-goods attitudes to transportation funding legislation.

Congress will now have until May 31, 2005 to produce a six-year transit and highway funding bill that wins the approval of the White House.

Some knowledgeable observers have told the Campaign that pushing the reauthorization into next year will probably help win more money for transportation overall. That’s because they expect a Kerry administration to be more sympathetic to infrastructure needs on one hand, or a post-election Bush administration less concerned with making transportation an example of fiscal restraint. However, these views may not account for mounting pressure to reign in record-setting federal deficits.

Under the new extension law, Congress authorized $24.5 billion (equivalent to $36.8 billion annualized) for highway programs and $5.2 billion ($7.75 billion annualized) for transit programs. These authorization levels represent an increase in authorized highway and transit funding over fiscal year 2003 levels, though the final funding decision will come in the fiscal 2005 transportation appropriations bill.

The funding increase appears to anticipate increased gas tax receipts as U.S. vehicle-miles of travel increase after several flat years, and is partly funded by a change in distribution of revenues from ethanol (or gasohol). Under TEA-21, 2.5 cents per gallon of ethanol was deposited in the general fund. The extension bill shifts those 2.5 cents to the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund.

MTR back issues:

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues.