Senate passes highway bill, but rough road ahead in House

The Senate, after months of debate, passed a $109 billion, two-year bill funding the nation's transportation infrastructure in a lopsided vote on Wednesday.

The bill, which passed 74 to 22, marked a rare bipartisan triumph in the Senate. Now, the House must pass the Senate bill or its own version – a process that is complicated by divisions within Republican ranks.

Until the Senate and House agree, American businesses that rely on federal transportation dollars aren’t exactly stalled, but they can’t kick things into high gear, either.

“The highway system is our assembly line, and the only way we can have our assembly line improved is through the action of government,” said Randy Mullett, a spokesman for Con-Way, a $5.3 billion trucking and freight company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Can you imagine any other business in the country that runs like that?”

Since the last long-term transportation funding bill expired in 2009, Congress has passed more than a half-dozen short-term funding extensions of a bill that once rocketed through both chambers, fueled by pork-barrel spending and the knowledge that every congressional district in America had potholes to fill.

At least two major hurdles remain before this bill can become law.

First, members of Congress might have to pass a temporary stopgap extension of transportation funding, because the current authorization runs out at the end of March. House Republicans, who return from work in their home districts next week, might not be able to settle on how to respond to the Senate proposal before then.

Then, the House will have to pass an actual transportation bill. House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio has said he will take up the Senate bill “or something like it” this month, unless Republicans can come to terms on their own version. Rifts in GOP ranks have scuttled two other bills – one a five-year plan and the other an 18-month offering.

These delays leave some businesses champing at the bit because the summer construction season is coming, and every day spent wondering about future funding is one that delays a shovel going into the ground.

Ken Anderson, the president of the Marshalltown, Iowa (population: 27,552), Chamber of Commerce sees a trickle-down effect in local projects. Funding is a “constant unknown that’s out there as we deal with our state [department of transportation] or our local streets and roads people, and it seems like they can’t make decisions about projects going forward,” Mr. Anderson says. "Or one if they make a decision then the funding falls apart and then it's delayed and we're chasing our tails."

1 | 2

Next