Highways, Bridges and Roads

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.”

Your morning transportation speed-read:

An email sent by transportation officials in Georgia contained links to porn.

Proposed expansion of the San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., Bay Area Rapid Transit system has been recommended for approval.

A state lawmaker in California who is authoring a bill to allow for a re-vote on a proposed high-speed railway there called the plan a "fantasy train."

Washington, D.C.'s MetroRail is saying it would hire 1,000 new employees with money from proposed fare hikes.

After the New Hampshire primary results come in Tuesday night, the Republican candidates for president are heading to South Carolina, and so is a Washington-based lobbying campaign to increase transportation spending.

The Building America's Future Education Fund said Tuesday that it would air a 30-second political ad that had been running in New Hampshire since December 2011 in the next state on the primary calendar, South Carolina. The Palmetto State, which will also see an onslaught of advertising from the candidates, votes Jan. 21. 

BAF said Tuesday its ad, titled "Bumpy Roads," would air through Jan. 16.

In it, a husband and wife drive over potholes and discuss government spending on transportation projects.

"We don’t need to spend more money on roads and bridges," the husband as the couple drives over a pothole.

"What if we do it right – build it to last, base it on a real plan, not earmarks, and stop sticking taxpayers with cost overruns?" the wife counters.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A California state lawmaker was caught with a gun at a Canada airport.

The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its Pre-Check program.

Sales of Japanese automobiles increased 24 percent last year.

Northeastern states are getting federal money to repair roads damaged during Hurricane Irene last year.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was "enormously effective" at getting earmarks for transportation projects in his home state when he was in Congress, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) said in a recent interview.

Rendell, whose term as governor of Pennsylvania overlapped Santorum's time as senator from the state, was assessing Santorum's showing in the Iowa caucuses with the Scranton Times-Tribune.

He told the newspaper that Santorum got the importance of transportation as a senator.

"He understood that those type of earmarks translated into jobs and investment," Rendell said in the interview. "So I think there's a practical side to Rick that didn't come through in Pennsylvania quite enough. But I think where he will eventually be tripped up are some of the things that he said that make you shake your head."

The beginning of 2012 could feel a lot like the summer of 2011, as lawmakers will be faced with another decision on the funding of the Federal Aviation Administration in the first month of the new year.

Congress passed a short-term extension of the agency's funding after talks on a long-term bill broke down in a disagreement over labor rules for transportation workers this summer — and the agency was temporarily shut down down for two weeks. But the short-term measure expires on Jan. 31, meaning the issue will be back on lawmakers' desks very early in the new year.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), who Democrats blamed for the shutdown of the FAA last year, has expressed optimism a deal could be reached this time.

The federal government should oversee toll rates drivers are charged on highways, a bipartisan pair of Northeast lawmakers are arguing.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) said they have filed a bill to allow the Department of Transportation to review whether proposed toll hikes are “fair” to drivers, and lower the tolls if they are not. The measure has been dubbed the “Commuter Protection Act.” 

The lawmakers said toll rates in their part of the country are getting out of hand.

“When it costs $12 to drive your car across a bridge in America, something is wrong,” Lautenberg said in a news release. “While the Port Authority and the two states are struggling to explain why these dramatic hikes were imposed, commuters are suffering.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a pilot's complaint about the tower at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has unveiled his transportation plan.

A former CEO of Detroit's Metro International Airport has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Baltimore's Thurgood Marshall International Airport is getting $100 million in renovations.

Reps. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) and John Carney (D-Del.) Wednesday said a deal on transportation funding was in reach.

Democrats in the House are pushing for a requirement that any projects paid for by a new federal highway bill be constructed using American supplies and construction workers.

House Republicans have suggested that a new surface transportation bill would be their counter to President Obama’s push for the lower chamber to pass his jobs bill. Democrats have introduced legislation that would require the transportation bill, which House leaders have suggested could cost as much as $280 billion, to include “Buy America” provisions.

“The Republican leadership has said that the major jobs bill of this Congress will be a surface transportation bill,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a news release. “The question is, where will they create the jobs? Will the jobs be created here at home, or abroad in China?