Highway bill vote delayed in Senate
WASHINGTON – With a deadline looming for a cutoff of highway aid to states, Senate Republicans failed Tuesday to muster enough votes to take up a bill that would extend transportation programs for six years.
Democrats complained they’d had only an hour to read the 1,040-page bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would give Democrats more time, but added he intends to push forward with the bill even if it means keeping the Senate in session over the weekend.
A motion to begin debate failed 41 to 56, falling far short of the 60 votes needed.
Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democratic leader, said, “I can’t remember a time where I have been asked in all my years in the Congress to vote yes ahead of time on a bill we haven’t seen, and there are no amendments” allowed.
While the bill would authorize highway and transit programs for six years, it contains only enough money – about $47 billion, according to a list of offsets supplied by McConnell’s office – to close the current funding gap for transportation programs for three years. The government currently spends about $50 billion a year on highway and transit aid, but the federal gas tax and other transportation taxes and fees raise only about $35 billion a year.
Some Republicans also expressed unhappiness with the bill. Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said he objected to one of its money-raising provisions that would reduce the dividend that the Federal Reserve pays to member banks, worth $16.3 billion.
“You’re taking money and there’s no connection between small banks, medium-sized banks and building highways and transit and you’re going to weaken the banking system. I’d be against that,” he told reporters.
The banking provision is the biggest source of money in the legislation to pay for transportation programs, according to a list provided by McConnell’s office. Another $9 billion would come from the sale of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve, the nation’s energy stockpile for emergencies. Indexing customs fees to rise with inflation would raise $4 billion. Extension of Transportation Security Administration fees paid by airline passengers would raise another $3.5 billion.