INSIDE WASHINGTON/Is it TEA time, yet?
A disagreement between Congress and the White House over funding could jeopardize passage of legislation this year that local governments rely on to maintain and build new roads and transit systems. President Bush has threatened to veto the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) if it exceeds $256 billion. Both the House and Senate have approved separate bills that call for a greater financial commitment from the federal government. The Senate approved a $318 billion bill, while the House legislation would reauthorize TEA 21 at $275 billion. Once passed, the bill would fund the nation’s transportation needs for the next six years.
City and county officials have formed the Local Officials for Transportation Coalition to lobby Congress and the White House to accept the Senate version. “A bill at a significantly lower level than $318 billion only delays the inevitable investment and raises the eventual cost to preserve and expand our nation’s transportation system and infrastructure,” the coalition wrote in a letter to lawmakers last month. “[Not passing the Senate’s version] will also delay improvements in congestion relief, transit improvements, and highway safety, creating higher economic costs and worsening air quality.”
Some Republican lawmakers, who generally support Bush on legislative matters, say they are focusing their efforts on passing the $318 billion bill and urge local officials to continue to make their voices heard. “I encourage people to notify the White House of their feelings,” says Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which is charged with helping craft a final bill.
Presidential year elections have been credited in helping to delay the legislation. Bush’s veto threat is viewed as an attempt to show that he can hold the line on spending. On the opposite side of the aisle, Senate Democrats protesting the GOP’s recent disregard for Democratic participation on other conference committee panels, delayed the appointment of conferees to the bicameral committee charged with negotiating a final bill.
Still, local officials say politics need to be shelved so that issues such as aging, obsolete and congested infrastructure can be addressed. Bob Fogel, senior legislative director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Counties, said the group is focusing its attention on lobbying the more than 70 senators and representatives appointed to a committee to resolve the differences between the two chambers.
“We want it sooner rather than later,” Fogel says of the reauthorization bill that expired Sept. 30, 2003. Congress has extended the original bill four times.
The White House’s veto still poses the largest threat to passing the $318 billion package. Arlington, Mass., Selectman Charles Lyons says that almost every state has had to delay transportation projects and adds it would be disrespectful of the president to block local governments from receiving the critical federal assistance. “If the White House wants to veto a much-needed transportation bill, that would be a terrible insult to the needs of cities and towns of America,” says Lyons, who serves as the president of the Washington, D.C.-based National League of Cities.
The author is Washington correspondent for American City & County.