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Rep. Mica promises highway bill next week
Criticizing President Obama’s call for spending savings from defense cuts on transportation projects in the State of the Union, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said the House would unveil its version of a new federal highway bill next week.
In his remarks to lawmakers Tuesday night, Obama suggested that since “we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.”
But Mica said that would not be how the Republican-led House suggests paying for the highway bill, which is currently set to expire at the end of March.
“America needs to rebuild its infrastructure, but I do not support what appears to be the president’s plan to finance that effort by downsizing the military,” Mica said in a statement released by his office. “Next week Republicans will introduce a long-stalled major transportation measure — killed two years ago by the president — that will be financed in part by increased American energy production, creating jobs and lowering energy costs.”
But the chambers offered differing plans for the bill. Mica first proposed a six-year, $230 billion extension of the surface transportation bill, which he said was the amount that would be brought in by the federal gas tax over that period.
Democrats countered by arguing the GOP bill would cut transportation spending across the board, offering instead to approve a two-year, $109 billion bill.
GOP leaders in the House have since signaled that they plan to tie the next highway bill to an expansion of domestic oil and gas drilling.
“There’s a natural link between the two: As we develop new sources of American energy, we’re going to need modern infrastructure to bring that energy to the market,” Boehner said during a speech last fall.
The current funding for federal highway projects, which was extended last fall by lawmakers, is set to expire March 31.
