[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 4 (Monday, February 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S246-S247]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE INTERMODAL SURFACE TRANSPORTATION EFFICIENCY ACT

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the provisions of ISTEA, the Intermodal 
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, expired on September 30, 1997. 
The Senate took up the ISTEA reauthorization bill on October 8, 1997, 
but between that date and October 29, the Senate was unable to adopt 
even one substantive amendment due to the impasse over Senate 
consideration of campaign finance reform legislation. As a consequence, 
the six-year ISTEA Bill was taken down and returned to the calendar.
  Finally, on November 10, the Senate passed a short-term extension of 
our existing highway and transit programs, thus delaying the completion 
of Senate action on our nation's surface transportation policy until 
the second session of the 105th Congress, the first week of which has 
now passed into history. Despite the stated intentions last November of 
the distinguished Majority Leader to take up the ISTEA reauthorization 
bill, S. 1173, at the beginning of this session, the bill has not been 
taken up, it is not before the Senate, and we are still operating on 
the short-term extension.
  With each passing day, I am increasingly concerned that the Senate 
may not return to the ISTEA reauthorization bill until after action is 
completed on the fiscal year 1999 budget resolution, which may not 
occur until late spring.
  I supported the enactment of the short-term extension bill back in 
November, but, as I said then, it was only a stopgap measure, and it 
provided only for one-half year of funding for our existing highway 
program, the highway safety programs, and the transit programs. 
Meanwhile, the various highway departments in the 50 states cannot 
establish a budget for the current fiscal year because they do not know 
the final level of federal resources they will receive even for this 
fiscal year which ends on September 30. The short-term extension bill 
will expire at the end of March, when the advent of spring will have 
made its appearance. Whether a new short-term extension of our highway 
programs will occur by the end of March is highly questionable. 
Meantime, how can the Governors and the highway departments of 50 
states plan for the construction season that will soon be opening 
throughout the country? It is a classic case of dawdling and indecision 
in Washington which is throwing our states into highway planning and 
budget limbo!
  Dante, the author of ``The Divine Comedy'', in Canto IV, described 
Limbo, as the ``first circle of Hell.'' This, it seems to me, is a very 
apt description of the situation in which the Governors and heads of 
highway departments throughout the states now find themselves as they 
attempt to budget and plan for the upcoming construction season, and 
their situation may very well become worse than hell as, more and more, 
they find themselves unable to do any long-term budgeting and planning 
in respect to highway construction.
  They cannot develop and implement any long-term financing plan 
because they do not know the level of federal resources that will be 
available to them over the five years following the current fiscal 
year. This is an impossible situation for our state highway 
departments. Given the costs and the duration of major highway 
projects, and the complexities associated with short construction 
seasons in our cold weather states, planning and predictability are 
essential to the logical functioning of our Federal-Aid Highway 
program. That kind of rational planning is precisely what our states 
cannot do at this time because of the inaction of Congress regarding 
the highway bill. This is not how our state and local transportation 
agencies should have to do business. It is, nonetheless, the precise 
circumstance in which our transportation agencies are being placed due 
to the failure of Congress to enact a multiyear ISTEA reauthorization 
bill in a timely manner.
  It is not only unreasonable, it is also very unfair, for Congress--
because of inaction--to place this burden upon the Governors, the 
Mayors, and the highway agencies throughout the country.

[[Page S247]]

 Plainly speaking, Congress is shirking its responsibility!
  Meantime, while Congress sits on its hands, Americans who buy 
gasoline are continuing to pay a 4.3 cents-per-gallon gas tax every 
time they drive up to the pump. That gas tax previously went to deficit 
reduction, but it is now being deposited in the highway trust fund, and 
Congress should pass legislation to authorize that it be spent on our 
nation's considerable highway needs. The money from these gas taxes is 
accumulating in the highway trust fund, but Congress has passed no 
legislation authorizing it to be spent for surface transportation 
needs. The American people have been told by the Congress that monies 
in the highway trust fund would be spent for highways and other surface 
transportation needs.
  And as long as Congress fails to live up to its commitment the 
American people are being misled. As long as Congress fails to live up 
to its commitment, the American people are being duped into believing 
that the gas taxes in the highway trust fund will be spent on highway 
construction and other transportation needs, but Congress, meanwhile, 
dillydallies, sits on its hands, and lets these tax revenues build up 
in the highway trust fund. It amounts to an abuse of the trust which 
the American people have placed in us. Meanwhile, the potholes deepen, 
the asphalt chasms open wider, and danger stalks our nation's highways.
  By the end of this fiscal year, more than seven billion dollars in 
additional new revenues will have been deposited into the highway trust 
fund, not one penny of which is, as of this moment, authorized to be 
spent on highway construction and other surface transportation needs 
under the committee reported ISTEA bill.
  Instead, these funds will continue to sit in the highway trust fund, 
earning interest, and being used as an offset to the federal deficits--
if, indeed, they are not siphoned off, in the meantime, and used for 
purposes other than highway and other surface transportation needs.
  The time to act on the highway bill is now! The first week of the 
second session has gone with the wind. We are now into the second week. 
The clock is ticking and the calendar is running. The highway 
construction seasons will soon be upon us, and yet, as of this moment, 
there is no indication that Congress will return to the highway bill.
  I hope that the Governors, who will soon be meeting in the Nation's 
Capital, will contact the leadership in both Houses and request that 
the highway bill be taken up immediately. I hope that the Mayors and 
the state highway departments will do the same. The first day of spring 
is only seven weeks away, and Congress must begin promptly to debate 
the highway bill in both houses if we are even to hope that the bill 
can be enacted by the time that ``the lark's on the wing'' and ``the 
snail's on the thorn.'' It should be done. But it can be done only if 
the leadership will bring up the bill. I respectfully urge the Senate 
leadership to do that promptly.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. KYL addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. KYL. Thank you, Mr. President.

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