WASHINGTON — Everybody, from business groups to governors to lawmakers in both parties on Capitol Hill, hates the patchwork approach Congress has taken for the past six years to the federal highway trust fund.
Yet it’s become the new normal.
On Wednesday, lawmakers in the House of Representatives did exactly what they did two months ago and one year ago: They passed a bipartisan bill to extend the federal highway trust fund for a few more months, promising to get a bigger bill done by the end of this year.
“It seems to be the way we do business these days,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif.
But Matsui, 53 other Democrats and 65 Republicans weren’t buying it. They voted against the $8 billion measure to keep payments going to the states through Dec. 18. More Democrats might have defected if not for a reluctant statement of support from the White House, and Republican leaders could not have passed the bill without them.
The vote reflects the growing frustration on Capitol Hill at how difficult it’s become to pass even the least controversial legislation. It’s been a decade since Congress approved a long-term highway bill.
“Nobody’s been happy about it,” said Jim Burnley, a former transportation secretary in the Reagan administration. “Nobody thinks it’s a good way to govern.”
A Senate bill might extend the program longer, perhaps until the end of next year or for another two years. But one problem persists for lawmakers in both chambers: They can’t agree on a permanent, sustainable source of funding.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has pushed a solution supported by business groups, labor unions and a handful of Republicans: raising the federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel for the first time since 1993. He noted that this year alone, six states with Republican governors and legislatures have increased their gas taxes.
But tax increases have long been political anathema to most lawmakers in Washington, and even the White House hasn’t supported that approach.
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