The House of Representatives took the first step in moving a massive $500 billion highway bill, with the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit approving the measure earlier today. The legislation, introduced earlier this week, preserves the ban on commercialization of rest areas. While this is an initial victory for highway communities, you can expect attempts to weaken the ban at other stages in the legislative process. Prior to the introduction of the legislation, the Partnership to Save Highway Communities sent a letter to all members of the House Transportation Committee requesting to leave the ban on commercialization intact.
The House version of the highway bill, however, faces an uphill battle towards completion. First, the draft of the legislation doesn’t specify how to pay for extra funding for highway programs. With the President on record against an increase in fuel taxes, there are limited options for finding the additional funding for the Highway Trust Fund. Other options include a tax based on the actual number of miles driven, but that would require technological innovations that aren’t quite ready for mass distribution. The other popular option, tolling, won’t raise near enough money to fund the highway system and doesn’t work in more rural areas with long stretches of highway.
Second, the White House has already given up on a reauthorization bill this year, instead suggesting an 18th month extension of the current reauthorization, with some “critical changes” to the law. Given the rapidly approaching deadline of September 30 to complete the bill, it will be difficult to get both the House and Senate to take sufficient action to get a long-term bill to the President’s desk.
Following today’s markup in the Highways Subcommittee, the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will take up the bill, most likely in July. With everyone having extended time to digest and analyze the bill, you can expect a flurry of amendments, which could include attempts to commercialize highway rest areas.