House Dems: GOP transportation plan 'short on details'

House Democrats criticized Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) announcement Wednesday of a proposal to pay for improvements to the nation’s transportation system with revenues from expanded drilling as being "short on details."

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the Speaker's plan to use revenue from opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska for oil drilling to pay for a five-year surface transportation bill was composed of recycled proposals.

"Nothing in today’s announcement identifies real, sustainable revenues needed to address our long-term surface transportation infrastructure investment needs," Rahall said in a statement. "Having both served on and chaired the Natural Resource Committee for many years, I have witnessed countless efforts to expand domestic energy production. 

"I have been through the 'Drill, Baby, Drill' cycles," he continued. "Unfortunately, many of the proposals offered today have been around for decades, and – more importantly – will generate nowhere near the amount of revenue in the near term promised by the Republicans."

Rahall said the GOP plan, which has been touted by Republicans as a counter to President Obama's proposal for a jobs bill, was "short on details but long on expectations to reauthorize our surface transportation programs.

"It is hard to take a ‘plan’ that contains few details seriously, but optimistically it appears the tides have turned and Republicans have come around from their previous attempts to slash the transportation budget by one third, which would have destroyed more than 600,000 American jobs in the first year alone," the long-time West Virginia lawmaker said.

“If Republicans were serious about creating jobs, they would have crafted a package that can garner bipartisan support, as our Committee has traditionally done, and quickly pass so we can get workers back on the clock right away," he continued. "Instead, they have chosen to play politics with the paychecks of construction crews with a proposal that contains vague promises that new energy exploration will magically create the money needed to fix our crumbling roads, bridges, and transit systems."

Asked about the details of his proposal during a news conference at the Capitol Thursday, Boehner said they were not yet available.

"Well, as we finalize this bill and we get ready to introduce more of those details we'll be available," he said. "But they're not all available today."

Boehner quickly pivoted to talk of the debt-reduction plan facing a panel of lawmakers tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from federal deficit.

"You need to understand that there's been exactly one proposal on the table in the committee," he said. "And that proposal came from the six Republican members, House and Senate, where it was outlined what we'd be willing to do."

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