... CONGRESSIONAL CALENDAR

Congress Likely to Wrap Up Key Issues After Election

Both the U.S. House and Senate plan to recess for the November elections at the conclusion of this week's business.

Congress will then return November 13 for a "lame-duck" session, which will focus largely on completing the annual budget process.

To date, one spending bill—the defense appropriations—has been sent to the President. It is expected that the Homeland Security funding measure will also be completed this week. The remaining spending measures—including non-defense domestic spending bills providing federal infrastructure investments—will be completed after the elections.

Congress approved a continuing resolution funding programs in the yet-to-be-enacted spending bills through November 17.

For more information, contact: Jim Kolb or David Hubbard.

Congress Works to Finalize
SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Bill

U.S. House and Senate transportation committees are working to finalize legislation making programmatic and technical language corrections to last year's highway and public transportation law.

The bill (H.R. 6233) corrects technical drafting errors to a number of programs, including the MAGLEV program, as well as a numerous of member projects. It also addresses concerns with the funding and structure of the surface transportation research program, which were "over-earmarked" during final conference negotiations last year.

ACPA and PCA are working to secure the inclusion of a provision correcting a provision in SAFETEA-LU that changed the long-standing cost share requirements within the pavement research and high-performance concrete bridge sections from the TEA-21 level of 80-20 ratio to a 50-50 match. If not corrected, the net effect of this change will be to limit the amount of pavement and concrete bridge research that is done under their respective programs.

Pavement and concrete bridge research funding for fiscal year 2006 has yet to be obligated.

For more information, contact: Jim Kolb or David Hubbard.

Water Resources Bill on Hold Until After the November Elections

U.S. House and Senate conferees working on the Water Resources Development Act of 2006 (H.R. 2854) were unable to reach a final agreement before recessing this week for the November elections.

Conference negotiations will continue after the election break to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills. There are several controversial issues that negotiators need to resolve including the scope of independent review of Corps projects, revisions to the Principles and Guidelines that the Corps uses to measure project benefits, and the overall number of water projects authorized in the final legislation.

Contact: David Hubbard.

Senate Expected to Approve Peters Nomination

Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee unanimously approved the nomination of Mary Peters to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The nomination is expected to be considered on the Senate floor as early as today as the Senate looks to wrap up work prior to recessing for the November elections. At press time, no formal announcement had been made.

For more information, contact: Jim Kolb or John Sullivan.

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Aviation Financing

The U.S. House Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing this week to examine options for financing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Federal aviation programs and user fees must be reauthorized next year. Financing for FAA programs and ensuring adequate revenues to the Airport and Airways Trust Fund (ATF) will be the major issue confronting Congress during the reauthorization process.

The AFT revenues are primarily generated through ticket and jet fuel taxes. Revenue generated through these sources have declined in recent years for a number of reasons, including the growth of low cost carriers and the increase in the number of smaller aircrafts utilizing the system.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that the uncommitted balance in the ATF has declined from $7.3 billion at the end of FY 2001 to $1.94 billion at the end of FY 2005. This decline has raised serious concerns with the current ATF financing mechanisms and the ability of the existing fees to generate the revenues necessary to address the needs of the aviation system.

Contact: Jim Kolb.

Trucking Executives Prefer Fuel Taxes Over Tolls

At a recent hearing before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Highways, Transit, and Pipelines a panel of trucking and shipping executives stated their preference for a fuel-tax-supported system over highway-by-highway tolling.

Chris Lofgren, President and CEO of Schneider National; Douglas Duncan, President and CEO of FedEx Freight; and Tim Yatsko, Senior Vice President, Transportation, Wal-Mart Stores, testified that they regarded tolling as a less efficient system than the unified federal fuel tax. However, the panel indicated that the looming infrastructure needs were so great that any viable funding mechanism would have to be considered.

After the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Thomas Petri (R-Wisc.) supported the position of the panel and stated that the excise fuel tax provided a superior mileage-based user fee. He also expressed concern that tolling would increase the potential for underinvestment in areas where it is not practical to toll. (Source: Transport Topics)

Contact: Robert Sullivan.

No Deal on New Off-Shore Drilling Bill to Expand Domestic Supplies

Barring a last minute break-though, U.S. House and Senate negotiators will not reach agreement on legislation to allow new off-shore oil and natural gas drilling off the coast of the United States before Congress leaves town to campaign for the November elections.

The issue is significant to energy-intensive industries, including concrete product manufacturing, that are impacted by natural gas prices and want more domestic supply sources that are resistant to interruptions prompted by political instability abroad.

Both the House and Senate have passed legislation during the current Congress that would expand oil and gas development in news areas along the U.S. coastline. However, the bills do so in significantly different ways.

A primary point of contention between the House and Senate versions is that the Senate would limit new exploration to the eastern Gulf of Mexico, primarily Florida, whereas the House version is far more expansive geographically. Further, the House version would allow states to opt out of the current moratorium on their own.

The issue will likely remain alive for the upcoming lame duck session following the elections. Manufacturing interests are expected to lobby strenuously for an agreement.

Contact: Randy Pence.

EPA Finalizes Monitoring Rule for Criteria Pollutants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week issued a final rulemaking to overhaul the system of monitors designed to measure ambient levels of six key pollutants: particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and carbon monoxide.

These pollutants are classified by the Clean Air Act as criteria pollutants for which EPA sets national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) that are implemented by the states. Other air pollutants are regulated directly through source controls, rather than requiring the states to attain ambient levels.

The criteria pollutants are currently measured by more than 5,000 monitoring devices at around 3,000 sites scattered throughout the country.

The rule will focus future efforts on fine particles and ozone, shutting down all but about 75 of the monitors for the other four pollutants.

Contact: Tom Carter.

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