Eleanor Holmes Norton: “2-year short-term highway fund extensions have become one of Congress' most costly habits. Kudos to the Senate Committee…”

“2-year short-term highway fund extensions have become one of Congress' most costly habits. Kudos to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which has marked up the highway portion and may come to the floor this week with a 6-year bill. That bill is not yet paid for, but the Senate is at least making progress toward a 6-year bill, the kind that is needed to make a dent in the backlog of our construction projects in the States. We should not be deterred by the likelihood of another short-term bill, perhaps going to the end of the year. The goal before the year is out must be a long-term bill. Congress has taken to authorizing the highway trust fund for 2 years, knowing full well that the trust fund, collecting gas user fees at 1993 levels, would run out even before those 2 years are out; then the waltz begins with endless short-term bills. The States are disgusted and exhausted. MAP-21 ran out before the end of its 2-year lifetime. The last short-term bill extension was so useless that it has lasted longer than expected because the States could not apply the funds to the backlog of now endless rescheduled projects; 6-month extensions have yielded 6-month projects, usually only patchwork. This poster goes beyond showing that the short-term extensions have been useless to the States. These short term bills and extensions are having negative effects on the pocketbooks of our constituents.…”