While the fight over the Affordable Care Act looks set to be the first drama of the 115th Congress, lawmakers on both sides are developing their priorities in an area that offers possible compromise: infrastructure upgrades.
The two main infrastructure committees — the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — are expected to be busy in 2017. It’s widely believed that infrastructure upgrades are one of the few areas members of both parties will be able to work together with President-elect Trump in the White House.
Trump has promised roughly $1 trillion in infrastructure spending while also promising a tax cut estimated to cost $4.4 trillion to $5.9 trillion. That leaves a lot of legislative work to be done.
The Senate EPW Committee will do it all with two new lawmakers in charge. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., takes over as chairman from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who was term-limited out of the chair and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., takes over for the now-retired Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Barrasso, who was made chairman of EPW officially last week, said most of his initial priorities will deal with setting up Trump’s new administration: confirming an Environmental Protection Agency administrator and working on repealing President Obama’s regulations and executive orders on environmental issues.
But, he also sees infrastructure upgrades as a critical need to helping smaller communities.
“We will also work to pass badly needed reforms to problematic EPA regulations issued over the past eight years, as well as finding ways to better empower rural communities by addressing aging roads, bridges, and dams,” he said in a statement.
As the new top Democrat on the committee, Carper’s plans include pushing an increase in the federal gas tax to fund further infrastructure upgrades.
In a statement following his appointment, Carper said he wants to revisit his 2015 idea to fix the Highway Trust Fund by raising federal gas and diesel taxes. The fund receives 18.4 cents on every gallon of gasoline sold in the United States and 24.4 cents on every gallon of diesel sold.
The Highway Trust Fund goes toward mass transit projects and highway work. As of November, it had about $17.4 billion on hand.
Carper said there are too many short-term fixes to the trust fund and raising taxes on gas and diesel would have the effect of ensuring long-term solvency. Tax increases have never been popular in Republican-controlled Congresses — conservative House lawmakers have pledged to not raise taxes or increase the deficit — but Carper is hoping Trump’s promises on infrastructure spending might change their tune.
“We have an opportunity to make America a leader in developing cleaner energy and to make serious investments in our infrastructure,” Carper said. “Both efforts will grow our economy and protect our citizens.”
Other infrastructure priorities Carper mentioned include steadying funding for passenger rail systems, mass transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure; helping coastal communities prepare for sea level rise caused by the increase in global temperatures; and strengthening U.S. airport security through the Transportation Security Administration.
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., has made it known that a different part of air travel needs to be one of Trump’s first priorities.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman has pushed for a Federal Aviation Authority reauthorization to be among the new president’s first orders of business. Among the proposals in that reauthorization is a privatization of air traffic control systems, which is something Shuster has pushed for more than a year.
However, he’ll have to work with the top Democrat on that committee to move an FAA reauthorization and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., is more focused on the country’s port system.
DeFazio went on the House floor last week and said the new focus on infrastructure should be put squarely on improving America’s ports. He said $470 million worth of exports went through the country’s ports last year, about three-quarters of the total exports of the United States.
However, the 59 busiest ports in the country are fully available less than 35 percent of the time due to a lack of funding, DeFazio said, citing the Army Corps of Engineers.
“That’s even before we begin to deal with the larger cargo ships that are going to be coming through the expanded Panama Canal to southeast and other ports in the United States,” he said. “And that is because of a lack of funding. Now, obviously, that’s a very difficult problem. We’re estimating about a $20 billion shortfall over the next 10 years in funding.”
DeFazio said the money is there, in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund that’s funded by a tax on imported goods. But, appropriators in Congress are using that money “for stupid purposes” and keeping it from its intended purpose.
It’s something Trump might find interesting, DeFazio said, which is why he sent a letter to the president-elect urging him to take action to direct Congress to spend the money on the infrastructure it’s meant for.
“It’s time to do things a little differently around here and I’m hopeful that the president, perhaps he’ll tweet about this and get some action out of the Republican majority,” DeFazio said.
