Commerce Committee Archives - Transportation For America

Carrying the message of Gulf Coast support for passenger rail up to Capitol Hill

After last week’s inspiring rail trip along the Gulf Coast where we witnessed firsthand the massive support for restoring passenger rail service along the coast, a member of the Southern Rail Commission testified before the Senate’s key rail committee earlier this week to deliver the same message Gulf Coast citizens so passionately presented at each stop last week.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, addresses the enormous crowd in Gulfport on the second stop of the Gulf Coast Inspection Train. Photo by Steve Davis / T4America

Mayor Knox Ross, the mayor of Pelahatchie, Mississippi and one of the state’s representatives appointed to the tri-state Southern Rail Commission (SRC), came to Washington following last week’s trip to deliver testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee for a previously scheduled hearing on America’s passenger rail system. Note: T4America serves as policy advisors for the SRC. -Ed.

In a refreshingly moving bit of testimony before the eleven committee members present, Mayor Ross shared his experiences from last week and urged the members to build on the groundwork laid by this very committee’s hard work to include smart passenger rail policy in last year’s broader surface transportation bill for the first time in history. (The FAST Act.)

“As our commission has visited communities across the gulf South, we have found the transportation options available to our citizens are becoming more limited and costly,” Mayor Ross told the committee. He noted in his written testimony how other options like air service and intercity buses have scaled back in the last decade in many of the rural communities along the coast, and how citizens have responded to this possibility of having a new connection between cities small and large.

“We saw an amazing outpouring of support in every city. …They just want an opportunity. Every city turned out. They’re looking for a hand up and saw Amtrak service as that opportunity,”

Just like the other local officials we spoke to, Mayor Ross sees this passenger rail connection as a powerful economic development tool for these Gulf Coast cities, small and large.

“We’re gearing toward connecting our smaller cities to our larger ones and giving these cities the opportunity to compete. All the cities along this route see the economic development potential of the train,” he said, drawing the same parallel to the interstate system that we did in our second post on the trip. “We invested in the national interstate system years ago and saw tremendous economic development, but now we’re having to put more money than ever into it with diminishing returns as we add lanes. Every modest investment in passenger trains across this country can create large economic development opportunities in all these cities.”

The impact of last week’s trip wasn’t lost on the outgoing Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman, who also testified Tuesday. “I think the excitement you saw last week is dramatic evidence of just how much we can bring to those towns – and how deeply they appreciate it,” he said.

“We all have an interest in ensuring that Amtrak continues to be as effective as possible, and that the American people in all regions of the country receive the passenger service they deserve. …The respective needs wherever you are in this network, for state corridors, long distance services, and the northeast corridor, and unifying those interests here in congress and across the country is critically important,” Mr. Boardman said.

Before the testimony began, the committee showed the short movie about the trip that T4America produced.

Mayor Ross followed up with perhaps the most powerful observation from the trip; the one was that stuck in the heads of many of the people we talked to along the way.

“One thing I hope you saw in that film….you saw black, white, republican, democrat. This is a bipartisan issue that we can all back and all agree on, an issue that can help bring our country together.”

Over 150 elected officials, DOTs, MPOs, chambers of commerce and others voice strong support for restoring TIGER program

With the the Senate Commerce Committee due to mark up their portion of a long-term transportation bill that will eliminate the competitive TIGER grant program and refocus its funds on a multimodal freight program, more than 150 organizations and elected officials signed a letter urging the committee to restore and authorize the TIGER program.

In the full letter (pdf) delivered to Commerce Committee offices just a few moments ago, more than 150 organizations and individuals supported the simple ask of preserving (and permanently authorizing) the TIGER program while also keeping the committee’s smart multimodal grant program for freight projects:

We request that the Commerce Committee authorize a strong, multimodal freight policy and freight investment grant program, as well as pass a complementary, authorization of the TIGER grant program separate from the multimodal freight discretionary grant program at or near equal funding levels.

Without moving both of these critical investment programs forward, the Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act removes local leaders’ access to one of the only federal transportation programs open to them today and miss an opportunity to establish transportation investment programs that both promotes the efficient movement of goods and provides affordable mobility and access to opportunity for all Americans.

The groups represented on the letter included 30 mayors/cities, over 30 chambers of commerce, businesses, metropolitan planning organizations, advocacy groups of all stripes, a few universities, and a few city departments of transportation.

Want to join them? It’s not too late to send a letter of your own to your Senator urging them to keep TIGER alive.

Here’s why some of the letter’s signatories say they support this effort:

TIGER has been incredibly important to supporting economic development in our thriving region. Here that means strong freight connections as well as connections to high tech and aerospace jobs in growing job centers in our cities – quality jobs that are supported by all sorts of transportation connections. – Rick Olson, Director of Government Relations, Puget Sound Regional Council (Seattle).

A flexible TIGER grant program is essential to ensuring the economic mobility and prosperity of communities across our country. America is great for the individuality that each of our community possesses. Our local diversity is our national strength. Preserving this invaluable transportation program in the flexible form it now stands ensures that the progress and momentum we are now experiencing is sustained as we emerge from the Great Recession into the future. – Paul F. Morris, President and CEO, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.

Access to programs like TIGER to fund multi-modal improvements to our transportation system is critical to the future of our community. Please keep TIGER flexible and useful as a tool to meet the transportation goals of individual communities. – Bruce Knight, Planning and Development Director, City of Champaign, Illinois

The TIGER program has been invaluable to the City of Indianapolis. From the construction of our world-class and unique Cultural Trail, to the deployment of 22 all electric buses, to the planning and design of our first rapid transit corridor – TIGER has been there and made our dollars go farther, faster. Changing one of the most successful federal programs to restrict uses would be a mistake. – Gregory A. Ballard, Mayor, City of Indianapolis

As the only USDOT initiative that specifically recognizes the vital link between transportation & economic development, it is imperative that the Congress continue the TIGER program, allowing communities across the country to promote sustainable investments that not only maintain, but actually improve our transportation system. – Rick Dunne, Executive Director, NVCOG – Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (Connecticut)

The TIGER grants have made some very important alternative transportation projects possible. The smartest way to solve congestion and pollution is to offer people alternatives to sitting in traffic jams. This is one of the most important ways the federal government can assist the local governments. It should not only be continued, but it should be increased. —Mark Gamba, Mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon

The TIGER program is a vital tool for local governments to enhance multimodal options, provide repairs to key pieces of infrastructure, and improve transit service. While the Broward MPO supports a national freight grant program, such a program should not be created at the expense of TIGER, especially when more and more Americans are demanding alternative transportation options. – Gregory Stuart, Executive Director, Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (Florida)

TIGER is a tremendous program that allows communities to create the kind of 21st century transportation infrastructure that is the foundation for a robust economy. I strong urge all Members of Congress to continue to support this important program. – Dawn Zimmer, Mayor, City of Hoboken (New Jersey)

The Commerce Committee’s markup takes place at 4:45 p.m. (eastern) today.

Keep those letters to your Senators coming and help preserve TIGER and the good it does for local communities.

Congress kicks into high gear on transportation — let’s summarize the action

During an extremely busy week in Congress in several key committees, a long-term transportation bill and a multi-year passenger rail authorization were introduced and passed committees, along with hearings on possible ways to keep our nation’s transportation fund afloat, rural transportation issues, rail safety, and autonomous vehicles.

For those of you who don’t regularly follow Congress, this is often how things go: nothing seems to happen for a long time, and then there’s an explosion of activity all at once. That’s certainly what took place this week in the Senate, with some important ramifications for the future of transportation funding and policy. We hope that Congress shows the same focus when they return from their weeklong July 4th recess.

Four of the five Senate committees with jurisdiction over either transportation policy or funding were active this week. Two notable transportation policy bills (and one yearly spending bill) were advanced out of committees this week, and the Senate made the first big move toward passing a long-term transportation reauthorization ahead of the July 31 expiration of MAP-21, the current law. So what happened, and what should we be expecting next?

Here’s our brief rundown of what you need to know.

First up, in news we haven’t covered here yet, the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning marked up and passed their version of the yearly transportation and housing spending bill that was passed out of the House several weeks ago — a bill that cut TIGER, passenger rail, and transit construction. Unfortunately, the news out of the Senate today was only marginally better. On the plus side, TIGER funding is maintained at this year’s level: $500 million again for competitive grants this upcoming year. But the Senate actually makes deeper cuts to New and Small Starts transit construction than the House did — $520 million in cuts over last year, and $320 million more than the House passed a few weeks ago. Passenger rail funding gets a marginal increase over last year’s level.

While we were hopeful that the Senate could possibly restore some of these cuts made by the House — as had happened in several years past — the consensus by House and Senate Republicans to stick to 2011 budget sequestration-level discretionary funding amounts for all of their FY2016 spending bills result in cuts across the board to discretionary programs like these. All Democrats on the Appropriations Committee opposed this bill.

Smart Growth America offered up this statement on the THUD bill today. T4America is a program of Smart Growth America.

The United States is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis. Rents are rising, the homeownership rate is declining, and federal housing programs are already failing to meet the need for affordable homes. Gutting the HOME program at a time like this is the wrong response. If Congress’s budget caps force this outcome, the budget caps need to be changed.

Logged-in T4America members can read our full THUD summary below:

[member_content]June 24, 2015 — The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (Transportation-HUD) marked up and reported its FY2016 appropriation bill to the full committee on June 23 without amendment. This is T4America’s short members-only summary of the THUD bill as reported to the full committee. Read the full memo.[/member_content]

Second up was the release and the subsequent committee markup of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee’s six-year transportation bill known as the DRIVE Act. The EPW Committee is responsible for the largest portion of the full bill known as the “highway title” — more on the other portions below. In case you missed any of our posts about the EPW bill over the last few days, you can catch up with those below. Long story short? EPW released a bill with some modest improvements that represents a good starting point for debate, they approved it unanimously in committee while making a few small improvements, and important amendments that could ensure our investments best maintain and improve our transportation system are still outstanding and will hopefully be considered by the full Senate.

Statement on the release of the Senate’s long-term transportation reauthorization proposal

While this bill provides a positive starting point, there are other areas where Congress can and should do better.

Senate’s new transportation bill is a good start, but more should be done for local communities

The EPW committee marked up and approved this bill unanimously on June 24th without considering amendments (other than a package of amendments in a manager’s mark.) The amendments mentioned below were discussed or offered and withdrawn, and will hopefully be debated on the floor of the Senate. So keep any letters of support coming — this action is still ongoing!

Senate Committee rolls forward with speedy markup of six-year transportation bill

In a committee markup where the phrase “doing the Lord’s work” was invoked by numerous members on both sides of the aisle, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sped through a markup of their draft six-year transportation bill in less than an hour this morning, approving it by a unanimous vote with no amendments, save for a manager’s package of amendments agreed to in advance.

While the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up the transportation & housing spending bill this morning, the Senate Commerce Committee — the committee with jurisdiction over rail policy in the Senate — considered the Railroad Reform, Enhancement, and Efficiency Act — a bill to govern all passenger rail policy and authorize funding for the next several years. The RREEA bill is a good step forward, supported by T4America wholeheartedly:

Statement in response to introduction of the Railroad Reform, Enhancement and Efficiency Act

Senators Wicker and Booker are doing the nation a great service in crafting a bill that ensures Americans will see continued and improving passenger rail service in the years to come. Passenger rail service is vital and growing in popularity, and keeping the system working and safe requires investment. The Wicker-Booker bill embraces both those ideas. It authorizes necessary funding to start to return the system to a state of good repair and make targeted investments to improve service.

The committee markup of the bill known as RREEA was mostly uneventful, and it passed by a unanimous vote with mostly minor amendments and issues raised — some of which were safety-related and expected in the wake of the recent derailment in Philadelphia. The Commerce Committee is also responsible for freight and rail policy for the long-term bill, and we’ve heard that they could be releasing their draft long-term bill shortly after the July 4th recess.

Lastly, both House and Senate committees tasked with finding the funding to pay for the next long-term transportation bill (or finding the money to extend MAP-21 past July 31) held hearings this week to continue their work along those lines. In the case of the House, they were specifically discussing repatriation of corporate earnings as a possible revenue source.

Repatriation is the process by which companies can bring offshore earnings back to the U.S. at a reduced tax rate, and then all or a share of those tax revenues would be directed to the trust fund, providing revenues for a long-term transportation bill. It’s an idea that’s gotten some traction in the Senate — Senators Barbara Boxer and Rand Paul have introduced a proposal — but it’s still a one-time fix that’s still not a fee paid by the users of the transportation system.

A House Ways and Means subcommittee held a hearing today to discuss repatriation, and the overall takeaway from the hearing seemed to be that while repatriation may be the most feasible option after a gas tax increase was ruled out by Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, there’s still little consensus in the House, and many representatives want to tie it to more thorny issues like corporate tax reform, reducing the chances that it could pass quickly or easily.

In the Senate, the Finance Committee held a hearing today as well to discuss the use of public-private partnerships — a growing trend in many states as they look to up-front cash from the private sector to help fund longer-term projects where the private party defers their payment or profits. Despite the way P3s, as they’re known, are frequently invoked as a possible funding solution, almost all the panelists today noted that although having a greater range of financing options will certainly be a boost to many states and cities, P3s won’t be sufficient without also increasing overall revenues. They’re not a panacea.

Which leads us right back to the elephant in the room: finding and agreeing upon a new, stable revenue source that can keep the nation’s transportation fund solvent for years to come. It was indeed a busy week, and we hope that Congress will keep up the momentum when they return from their weeklong July 4th recess.

With GOP victories, SAFETEA-LU team in line to chair Senate committees

With last night’s election, both the Senate and House will see leadership changes in key transportation committees. With the nation’s transportation funding source running near empty and the current law, MAP-21, expiring in the spring, these new committee leaders will have an opportunity to make an impact in the very near term.

First, the Senate, where the Environment and Public Works Committee writes the largest portion of the transportation bill, the “highway title”. Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is expected to yield the gavel to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). Though the two worked closely together on MAP-21, Inhofe has indicated that he plans to conduct EPW business differently than his predecessor, and it’s unclear at this point exactly how he would stray from the current course.

The next biggest piece of the Senate bill, the “transit title”, is written in the Banking Committee, where Richard Shelby (R-AL) is in line to become chair. The Inhofe-Shelby pairing also led negotiations on SAFETEA-LU – MAP-21’s predecessor – in 2005.

In the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-WV) — amazingly a member of this committee his entire time in Congress — lost re-election to his 20th term, which eliminates the top Democrat on the committee. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) is next in line for the top Democratic seat on the Committee, and is a familiar and vocal proponent of a strong federal role in transportation.

That covers the policy side of the equation. On the funding side, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is projected to take over the Finance Committee, swapping roles with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). On the funding side in the House, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is expected to take over the Chair of the Ways & Means Committee for retiring Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI).

In the short-term, the biggest battles will come over annual appropriations, setting the spending levels for discretionary programs such as TIGER and Amtrak. The first order of business for Congress when it returns next week is extending the continuing resolution – a temporary funding measure – that expires in December long enough to allow appropriators to hammer out spending levels for the full fiscal year. That will now likely occur under the GOP-controlled Congress early in the next calendar year.

The 800-pound gorilla of questions marks though, is how Congress will fund the nation’s transportation system next year and beyond. Gas tax receipts are dropping, cars are getting more fuel-efficient and driving is leveling off – and most baby boomers haven’t even stopped commuting yet. Although a faction of Republicans has called for the feds to abandon their traditional role and devolve the lion’s share of responsibility and oversight to the states, that idea so far has not gained traction with the full caucus. Though yet another short-term fix was agreed to a few months ago to keep the program going into next year, that funding will be tapped out by Spring 2015, and the trust fund will be near insolvency yet again.

Raising the gas tax may be a non-starter in a GOP Congress, though that remains to be seen. Other revenue ideas have struggled to gain a foothold, including the House GOP proposal during the last reauthorization to boost revenue with fees from expanding oil and gas drilling into formerly protected areas. On the Democrat side, DeFazio has introduced legislation to replace the federal gas tax with a fee at the refinery level that would be indexed to inflation, potentially yielding a more stable funding source.

In all, Tuesday’s election results should make for a fascinating 2015.