The House returns Tuesday to a mountain of unresolved transportation issues with little room for error and little time to get up to speed.
There will be immediate urgency for both chambers (the Senate reconvenes Jan. 23) to address the Federal Aviation Administration, as its funding expires Jan. 31. That?s just the beginning ? transit riders are clamoring for an expired tax provision to be renewed and the trucking industry is in a frenzy over new hours-of-service rules. Just around the corner: Surface transportation law runs out March 31.
Continue ReadingPartisan bickering on extending a 2 percent payroll tax cut past Feb. 29 could easily suck up the oxygen in Congress and lead to further stopgap extensions on FAA and highway funding ? an unpalatable scenario for leaders after 30 extensions over more than 2,400 days for the two laws.
?If we want to ensure we have high unemployment, have stopgaps. If we want to have high employment,? we need new bills, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said in an interview.
Here?s a look at how Congress left transportation when it bolted in December and what it now has to do about it.
Stop the shutdown
Avoiding a possible second partial FAA shutdown in six months is a must. A two-week stalemate last summer over Essential Air Service subsidies for rural flights put 4,000 FAA employees out of work, cost the Airport Improvement Program more than $300 million and reflected poorly on Capitol Hill as a whole.
Funding expires in exactly two weeks, and Congress had 4? months since the last stopgap to work on a new long-term bill, the most breathing room since 2009. Optimism on getting a new four-year bill persisted until winter set in, when it was revealed controversial National Mediation Board language over how union election votes are interpreted forced negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Mica said leadership staff made ?minor progress? during negotiations over the winter recess and that discussions on the labor issue, general funding levels, the Essential Air Service program and flight slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport are fluid but within reach. Still, the clock is ticking.
?There?s going to be an emergency assessment [this] week when we get back,? Mica said. ?If I don?t have an agreement or time to finish the language, ? we have to kind of convene a quick conference.?
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