[House Report 115-85]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


115th Congress     }                                           {   Report
                         HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session       }                                           {   115-85

======================================================================

 
TO REPEAL THE RULE ISSUED BY THE FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION AND THE 
    FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION ENTITLED ``METROPOLITAN PLANNING 
          ORGANIZATION COORDINATION AND PLANNING AREA REFORM''

                                _______
                                

 April 6, 2017.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Shuster, from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 1346]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, to whom 
was referred the bill (H.R. 1346) to repeal the rule issued by 
the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit 
Administration entitled ``Metropolitan Planning Organization 
Coordination and Planning Area Reform'', having considered the 
same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend 
that the bill do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose of Legislation...........................................     2
Background and Need for Legislation..............................     2
Hearings.........................................................     2
Legislative History and Consideration............................     3
Committee Votes..................................................     3
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................     3
New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures........................     3
Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................     3
Performance Goals and Objectives.................................     4
Advisory of Earmarks.............................................     4
Duplication of Federal Programs..................................     4
Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings..............................     5
Federal Mandate Statement........................................     5
Preemption Clarification.........................................     5
Advisory Committee Statement.....................................     5
Applicability of Legislative Branch..............................     5
Section-by-Section Analysis of Legislation.......................     5
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............     5

                         PURPOSE OF LEGISLATION

    H.R. 1346 would repeal the Metropolitan Planning 
Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform rule.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    On December 20, 2016, the Federal Highway Administration 
(FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued the 
final rule ``Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination 
and Planning Area Reform'' (81 Fed. Reg. 93448). This rule 
significantly alters transportation planning regulations, in an 
attempt to promote more effective regional planning by States 
and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). Among other 
changes, the rule requires MPOs in the same urbanized area to 
merge, adjust their boundaries, or produce a single, unified 
set of plans to guide transportation investments. The final 
rule includes a waiver process, subject to approval by the 
Secretary, from some of the joint planning requirements if an 
area can demonstrate suitable coordination.
    The rule exceeds the planning requirements set forth in 
statute. Section 134 of title 23 and section 5303 of title 49, 
United States Code, establish MPOs and describe their 
responsibilities in the transportation planning process. These 
sections require MPOs to prepare long-range plans and 
Transportation Improvement Plans (TIPs) and outline how MPOs 
should work with other entities, such as state departments of 
transportation, as they develop these plans. These sections 
also require the Secretary of Transportation to encourage each 
Governor of a state with a portion of a multistate metropolitan 
area and the appropriate MPOs to provide coordinated 
transportation planning for the entire metropolitan area. 
However, these sections of law do not mandate that MPOs within 
the same urbanized area produce a single TIP, or long-range 
plan.
    MPOs and state transportation officials have expressed 
concerns with the rule's requirement that force MPOs to merge, 
adjust boundaries, or consolidate planning documents. Urbanized 
areas can span several states and hundreds or thousands of 
square miles. By forcing MPOs to merge or consolidate TIPs, the 
rule takes local transportation investment decisions out of the 
hands of local authorities.
    The rule also stands to drive up administrative costs and 
burdens on MPOs. FHWA and FTA estimate that the rule could 
require more than 140 MPOs to merge. If those MPOs all merged, 
FHWA and FTA estimate the costs associated with merging, 
including developing dispute resolution processes and making 
transportation conformity adjustments under the Clean Air Act, 
could exceed $340 million over four years.
    H.R. 1346 repeals the Metropolitan Planning Organization 
Coordination and Planning Area Reform rule and nullifies any 
changes to federal regulations made as a result of such rule.

                                HEARINGS

    No hearings were held on H.R. 1346.

                 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY AND CONSIDERATION

    On March 2, 2017, Congressmen Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) and 
Jason Lewis (R-MN) introduced H.R. 1346.
    On March 29, 2017, the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure met in open session and ordered the bill 
reported favorably to the House by voice vote with a quorum 
present.

                            COMMITTEE VOTES

    Clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives requires each committee report to include the 
total number of votes cast for and against on each record vote 
on a motion to report and on any amendment offered to the 
measure or matter, and the names of those members voting for 
and against. There were no recorded votes taken in connection 
with consideration of H.R. 1346.

                      COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS

    With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(1) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee's oversight findings and recommendations are 
reflected in this report.

               NEW BUDGET AUTHORITY AND TAX EXPENDITURES

    Clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives does not apply where a cost estimate and 
comparison prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office under section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974 has been timely submitted prior to the filing of the 
report and is included in the report. Such a cost estimate is 
included in this report.

               CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

    With respect to the requirement of clause 3(c)(3) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section 
402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee has 
received the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 1346 from the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                     Washington, DC, April 5, 2017.
Hon. Bill Shuster,
Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 1346, a bill to 
repeal the rule issued by the Federal Highway Administration 
and the Federal Transit Administration entitled ``Metropolitan 
Planning Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform.''
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Sarah Puro.
            Sincerely,
                                                        Keith Hall.
    Enclosure.

H.R. 1346--A bill to repeal the rule issued by the Federal Highway 
        Administration and the Federal Transit Administration entitled 
        ``Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning 
        Area Reform''

    H.R. 1346 would repeal a December 2016 rule issued by the 
Department of Transportation (DOT) that requires transportation 
planning organizations, known as Metropolitan Planning 
Organizations (MPOs), to change how they operate.
    Under current law, areas with a population greater than 
50,000 are required to have an MPO in order to receive federal 
funds for certain transportation programs. The DOT rule 
requires some MPOs to consolidate and requires other MPOs to 
coordinate their planning documents. Neither the rule issued by 
DOT nor the bill repealing it would change the level of funding 
distributed to MPOs. As a result, CBO estimates that enacting 
the bill would have no effect on the federal budget.
    Enacting H.R. 1346 would not affect direct spending or 
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO 
estimates that enacting H.R. 1346 would not increase net direct 
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 
10-year periods beginning in 2028.
    H.R. 1346 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. CBO 
expects that, under the rule, MPOs will incur administrative 
costs to comply with the rule's requirements, such as 
developing new transportation plans for metropolitan areas. 
Based on information from DOT, CBO estimates that MPOs would 
spend about $80 million less per year over the 2018-2021 period 
if the legislation is enacted because they would no longer need 
to comply with the rule's requirements.
    The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Sarah Puro 
(for federal costs) and Jon Sperl (for the effect on state and 
local governments). The estimate was approved by H. Samuel 
Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

                    PERFORMANCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

    With respect to the requirement of clause 3(c)(4) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
performance goal and objective of this legislation is to repeal 
Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning 
Area Reform rule.

                          ADVISORY OF EARMARKS

    Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives, the Committee is required to include a list 
of congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited 
tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of 
rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives. No 
provision in the bill includes an earmark, limited tax benefit, 
or limited tariff benefit under clause 9(e), 9(f), or 9(g) of 
rule XXI.

                    DUPLICATION OF FEDERAL PROGRAMS

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(5) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the Committee finds that no provision 
of H.R. 1346 establishes or reauthorizes a program of the 
federal government known to be duplicative of another federal 
program, a program that was included in any report from the 
Government Accountability Office to Congress pursuant to 
section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program related to a 
program identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal 
Domestic Assistance.

                  DISCLOSURE OF DIRECTED RULE MAKINGS

    Pursuant to section 3(i) of H. Res. 5, 115th Cong. (2017), 
the Committee finds that enacting H.R. 1346 does not direct the 
completion of a specific rule making within the meaning of 
section 551 of title 5, United States Code.

                       FEDERAL MANDATE STATEMENT

    The Committee adopts as its own the estimate of federal 
mandates prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office pursuant to section 423 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform 
Act (Public Law 104-4).

                        PREEMPTION CLARIFICATION

    Section 423 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 
requires the report of any Committee on a bill or joint 
resolution to include a statement on the extent to which the 
bill or joint resolution is intended to preempt state, local, 
or tribal law. The Committee states that H.R. 1346 does not 
preempt any state, local, or tribal law.

                      ADVISORY COMMITTEE STATEMENT

    No advisory committees within the meaning of section 5(b) 
of the Federal Advisory Committee Act are created by this 
legislation.

                  APPLICABILITY OF LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

    The Committee finds that the legislation does not relate to 
the terms and conditions of employment or access to public 
services or accommodations within the meaning of section 
102(b)(3) of the Congressional Accountability Act (Public Law 
104-1).

               SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION

Section 1. Repeal

    Section 1 repeals the Metropolitan Planning Organization 
Coordination and Planning Area Reform rule and nullifies any 
changes to federal regulations made as a result of such rule.

         CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    H.R. 1346 makes no changes in existing law.