U.S. Legislative Issues

The traditional funding source for transportation projects is the federal gasoline and diesel excise tax, which is currently priced at 18.4 cents per gallon of gas and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and the federal government’s authorization to collect it is set to expire in September unless a new transportation bill is passed.

The gas tax brings in approximately $34 billion per year at its present rate, but Congress is trying to maintain current transportation funding levels of about $50 billion per year. Transportation advocates have said the current funding level is the bare minimum that can be spent on U.S. infrastructure to maintain the nation’s road and public transit systems.

Under current law, the Highway Trust Fund cannot incur negative balances and has no authority to borrow additional funds. The Department of Transportation has indicated that it needs at least $4 billion in cash balances available in the highway account to meet obligations as they are due. The Fund is scheduled to reach that $4 billion threshold in late-July and would have to then delay payments in order to maintain that balance.

In the past month, several bills have been introduced to address the problem. One bill, filed by Representative Paul DeFazio (D-OR), would repeal the gas tax (but not the diesel tax, which would be indexed to inflation) as well as the federal excise tax on truck tires, and instead replace them with a tax of $6.75 per barrel of oil, indexed to inflation. The revenue generated form these measures would be enough to close the $16 billion per year gap between current revenues and current highway funding.

One of the more promising developments has been the bipartisan plan from Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). At a press conference on June 18, the pair released a plan to raise the gas tax six cents a year for the next two years and then peg the rate to inflation. The public support from a sitting Republican member of Congress for raising the gas tax is significant, showing hope for a compromise. Senators Corker and Murphy say raising the gas tax preserves the "user fee" system for funding the nation’s highways rather than simply transferring money from the general fund.

The Corker/Murphy plan is "revenue neutral," meaning that any additional revenue collected by the federal government through the gas tax would be offset through tax cuts elsewhere. The offsets proposed by Senator Corker include: the research and development tax credit; Section 179 expensing, a tax break encouraging small businesses to purchase business equipment; the deduction of state and local sales taxes; the deduction of up to $250 in classroom expenses that teachers paid for out of their own pocket; a subsidy for mass transit and benefits given for land donated for conservation purposes. The senators say they are open to suggestions for other offsets.



As the Highway Trust Fund reaches the point in late July when payments will have to be delayed due to insufficient funds, Congressional leaders are starting to worry that a permanent plan to replenish the fund will not be reached in time. In order to buy congressional leaders more time, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, released a three month, $9 billion plan that would keep the fund solvent through the end of December. The plan would generate money from several sources, including a transfer from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) fund.

The Senate Finance Committee held an executive session on June 26 to consider the Wyden plan. However, no votes were taken during the session. After allowing members of the committee to lay out their amendments, Chairman Wyden adjourned, saying he and Ranking Member Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) will meet with House leaders to further discuss ways to pay for the measure. Senator Wyden plans to reconvene and hold a vote in early July.



NAFA Fleet Management Association filed comments with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regarding its proposal to mandate Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) for interstate commercial trucks and buses that currently fall under Hours of Service regulations. In the comments, NAFA highlighted its support for ELDs while noting that drivers who do not currently have to fill out Hours of Service paperwork on more than 8 out of 30 days should be exempt.

The rule is expected to be made final in early 2015.



The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hosted an event on June 25, where members of Congress were given the opportunity to test out a driverless car prototype. Following a ride around DC in the modified Cadillac SRX designed by Carnegie Mellon University, two members of the Transportation Committee held a Facebook town hall where they responded to questions from the public about the future of federal regulation of driverless vehicles.  The town hall, which can be found here, was hosted by Congressman Larry Bucshon (R-IL) and Congressman Bob Gibbs (R-OH). In the town hall, the Congressmen noted the benefits from driverless technology, including reductions in traffic achieved by the car’s ability to keep correct spacing and the "great potential for this technology to mitigate the common driver errors that often cause accidents."

There has been plenty of interest in developing driverless cars, with companies such as Google actively testing them, and there is a real possibility of vehicles without parts like steering wheels being mass-produced eventually. Some lawmakers, however, have expressed uncertainty about the possibility of allowing cars to drive themselves. Indeed, some of the largest hurdles to overcome before driverless cars become widely adopted are regulatory, including ironing out who may be liable in the event of a crash, rather than technical. Still, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster raved about driverless cars after conducting a test drive last fall, calling them "the future of transportation."



A Senate appropriations bill to fund the Department of Transportation and some highway projects was pulled from the floor on June 19 after agreement could not be reached on which amendments to vote on. During the Fourth of July recess, Senate leaders will continue to negotiate a package of amendments to be offered on the Senate floor.

Earlier in June, when the bill was being considered in the Senate Appropriations Committee, an amendment was adopted that would roll back part of the Hours of Service rule issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) last summer. The rule, offered by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), would provide a temporary suspension of two provisions: that drivers take two consecutive 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM periods of rest before they can work again and that 168 hours must pass before a new workweek can be started (the restart rule). The amendment was adopted by a margin of 21-9.



The House of Representatives voted on June 10 to prevent the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from raising the minimum insurance levels required for motor carriers. The chamber voted mostly along party lines to adopt the measure as an amendment to the House version of the transportation appropriations bill. The current level of minimum financial liability coverage is $750,000 for general freight carriers. In a report released by FMCSA in early June, the agency hinted that it was considering raising the minimum level to ensure adequate coverage in the event of crashes and might impose a financial responsibility requirement on private motor carriers for the first time.

The amendment was adopted by a slim margin of 214-212. The Senate version of the bill does not currently contain the minimum insurance provision, so agreement will have to be reached in a conference committee.