Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, 2 weeks ago, I stood in this exact spot and urged passage of a highway trust fund patch as soon as possible to keep our surface transportation programs up and running.

Now we stand at the edge of an enormous cliff with days--not weeks--to go before the trust fund goes belly up and the Transportation Department starts rationing payments to States. We do not have the luxury of time to deliberate or trade further ideas. Congress needs to act now to enact a bill and avert an unnecessary crisis. That is why I support the motion before us today, but not because I think the House bill is a better approach.

The Senate extended programs through December to keep the pressure on Congress to enact a long-term highway bill as soon as possible. I fully support this approach. Unfortunately, the Senate amendment contains a technical error. It does not fully offset the transfer to the highway trust fund, and the House Republican leadership has made clear that the House will not consider a highway bill that is not fully offset.

With a single legislative day left to address this looming crisis, we need to ensure continued funding of roads, bridges, transit systems, and the safety of our travelers and passengers.

Two weeks ago, House Democrats supported a shorter extension as an alternative to H.R. 5021.

This approach was rejected by House Republicans. Today, the House Republican leadership will not even allow us to vote on a fix to the technical error in the Senate amendment.

The House bill and the Senate amendment both help States get through the remainder of this construction season, and they both provide the opportunity for Congress to come together on a bipartisan basis, which the chairman and I have done so well under his tenure and for which I commend him, and pass a long-term surface transportation law in a lameduck session.

There is absolutely no reason that Congress cannot come together and complete a long-term highway bill this fall. I repeat the point I just made, that this legislation that we are acting on today does not preclude us from coming together in a lameduck session of Congress and doing what is necessary for the American people, and that is passing a long-term, robustly funded transportation bill that puts our people to work and repairs our decaying infrastructure.

While I will vote for this motion today, it is not because the House approach is a better solution, but because it does provide the only path forward available to us to avert an immediate crisis and still allow the opportunity for Congress to do the right thing.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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