OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS - Highway Bill 2015

"Will the highway bill lead to funding problems down the road?" PBS NewsHour 12/25/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The scope of the $300 billion highway bill recently passed by Congress will touch roads and bridges in every state and most counties for a half decade.  Since 2009, there has been no long-term or stable federal funding to address needed transportation fixes.  But critics question where that funding for the new bill is coming from.  Political director Lisa Desjardins reports.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  That trip over the river and through the woods might go a little more smoothly in future years, thanks to the big highway bill that became law this month.  It is the largest deal of its kind in a decade.

And, as political director Lisa Desjardins reports, it’s attracting both cheers and concern.

LISA DESJARDINS (NewsHour):  The scope of this highway bill is vast, over $300 billion that will touch roads and bridges in every state and most counties for half-a-decade, a dramatic law that hits very familiar places to Americans.

HANS RIEMER, Montgomery County Councilman, Maryland:  Behind me is one of the most congested intersections in the state of Maryland.  And we have had the designs completed for this upgrade of this intersection for maybe 10 years.  It’s shovel-ready.

LISA DESJARDINS:  Meet Hans Riemer, a man who thinks about transportation a lot.  He has to, as a councilman for traffic-heavy Montgomery County, Maryland, north of Washington, D.C.

Riemer showed us this intersection that is a major bottleneck each morning.  The county has had a fix ready for years, but it has been in limbo waiting for stable federal funding to help, because — listen to this fact — since 2009, Congress has limped through 34 short-term highway bills, and no stable funding to back big projects like this, until now.

HANS RIEMER:  If the concern is, well, the federal government is not going to be there on the other end, don’t — then there is a lot of pressure not to spend the money locally.  And that is, you know, a — that is just a downward spiral really for everybody.  So the fact that bill is done at least for a temporary funding fix is a great step forward.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, Majority Leader:  It would be the longest-term bill to pass Congress in almost two decades.

LISA DESJARDINS:  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed the highway bill as a priority, and the mega-deal was put together by usual adversaries, Democrat Barbara Boxer of California and Republican Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.  They hashed out a final agreement with House members and the new speaker.

REP. PAUL RYAN, Speaker of the House:  We’re going to have a highway bill, which will help families and workers by rebuilding our infrastructure and giving a boost to our economy.

Can you believe it?!  A Republican Speaker of the House that believes in (conservative explicative deleted) compromise.