Highways, Bridges and Roads

The agreement reached by lawmakers this week on a $105 billion surface transportation bill is a "bad bill for biking and walking," a bicycle advocacy group said Wednesday.

The America Bikes coalition said the agreement that was negotiated by the House and Senate after a two-month conference would cut funding for biking and pedestrian programs by 60 to 70 percent because it would allow states to opt out of spending money in the highway bill on things other than roads and transit.

Democrats on the conference committee framed the opt-out provision of giving more control over bike and pedestrian funding to local governments, but America Bikes argued Thursday that the compromise "allows states to opt-out of half of the funds potentially available for small-scale biking and walking projects.

"Whereas the bipartisan Senate bill allowed local governments and planning entities to compete for 1 percent of transportation funds, the new bill allows states to opt-out of the local grant program completely," the coalition said in a post on its website.

The National Flood Insurance Program extension that was crammed into the highway funding and student loan compromise legislation late on Wednesday has left some senators fuming.

The bill does not reflect a tentative compromise on amendments worked out in the Senate.

An environmental group said Thursday that the agreement reached by lawmakers on a $105 billion surface transportation bill made "unacceptable changes to landmark environmental protections and wastes taxpayer dollars by ignoring environmental impacts that could be avoided."

In a deal painstakingly negotiated over two months, the House and Senate agreed on a transportation bill that accepted several Republican proposals to weaken Environmental Protection Agency regulations they argued had been gridlocking construction projects.

Negotiators also jettisoned a provision in the Senate's original version of the transportation bill that would have provided money for the land and water conservation trust fund, much to the chagrin of the Washington, D.C.-based Wilderness Society.

“The highway bill is meant to be about the infrastructure of the nation. Leaving the Land and Water Conservation Fund in a roadside ditch means we are not investing in our environmental infrastructure,” Wilderness Society Director of Legislative Policy David Moulton said in a statement. 

The conservative website RedState.com said Thursday that the agreement reached by lawmakers on a $105 billion surface transportation bill was "a massive increase in federal gluttony."

Lawmakers in both political parties have praised the agreement, which will provide transportation funding through the end of fiscal year 2014, for maintaining current spending levels for road and transit projects, adjusted for inflation.

But RedState Editor Erick Erickson said in a blog post Thursday the new highway bill would "expand government, government spending, and engage in Keynesian economic policies [Republicans have] criticized Barack Obama for."

"The Republicans decided to drop demands for approving the Keystone XL pipeline and demands that the EPA stop its ridiculous regulations on coal plants that will harm our energy future," Erickson wrote. "In exchange, Democrats will not fund bike paths and highway landscaping."

The bicameral agreement on a new surface transportation bill was released early Thursday morning by the House Rules Committee.

The bill (H.R. 4348) “provides funding for the federal-aid highway program through fiscal 2014 at current funding levels with a small inflationary adjustment,” the 47-member committee that convened on the measure for two months said in a joint statement attached to its report.

Lawmakers had to hoped to release the text of the compromise highway bill by Wednesday evening to clear the way for a vote on the measure by Friday. Because a draft of the measure was not completed until early Thursday morning, however, House GOP leaders will either have to waive their three-day rule for reviewing legislation before a vote or delay passage until Saturday.

The package likely represents the last significant burst of legislating before the election.

If Thursday were a pizza, it would have everything on it.

The House — fresh off an eerily bipartisan picnic at the White House Wednesday — is expected to pass an historic resolution on Thursday finding U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

The bitter, partisan debate over Holder will be enhanced by the Supreme Court's expected and even more historic healthcare ruling, which will prompt many members to cheer the result, and many others to warn that it could undermine the very fabric of the nation.

Along the way, the House and Senate will be prepping a bill to extend federal highway programs, keep student loan rates low, and reauthorize the national flood insurance program. And the House may take up a 2013 spending bill, and some maritime security bills.

Then — somehow or other — members of Congress will find time to hold their annual congressional baseball game for charity. And probably, it will go into extra innings.

The House late Wednesday approved 10 amendments to the 2013 Transportation and Housing and Urban Development spending bill, before adjourning just before 11:15 p.m.

Still up for a vote on Thursday are proposals to cut $500 million from the bill, and prohibit the government from requiring GPS tracking devices in cars, among others.

The House Republican who led negotiations for a deal reached Wednesday on a new transportation bill said the compromise would be the "jobs bill for the 112th Congress."

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) told reporters that the House-Senate agreement on transportation funding would create more jobs than any other piece of legislation being considered by Congress.

"It's been a long, tough battle, but I think this is going to be the bill to put more people back to work than anything Congress does in the next two years," he said.

A Democratic member on the committee of lawmakers that negotiated a bicameral agreement on a new transportation bill said Wednesday that members of his party would support the emerging agreement.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said details of the deal that were emerging on Wednesday looked like they were agreeable enough to House Democrats for the minority party to support the compromise measure.

"Given the fact that we now have hard info, this looks like a good, solid bill that will put people back to work," DeFazio said. "It doesn't do violence to things we care about, so I think we can support it."