By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times –
WASHINGTON — In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate approved a $109 billion transportation bill Wednesday.
The measure passed 74-22, underscoring the political appeal of a bill that supporters say will create jobs and reduce traffic congestion.
The bill, possibly one of the few major pieces of legislation that could be signed into law before the fall election, maintains the current level of funding for highway and transit projects for two years.
“It probably will be the major jobs bill of the year,” said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
House Republican leaders have struggled to unify a majority behind their own transportation bill. House leaders are considering bringing up “something like the Senate bill,” but are still “working toward coalescing around a longer-term approach with needed reforms,” said a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The Senate vote — along with the urgency to act before the government’s authority to collect gas taxes expires at the end of the month, shutting down highway projects — increases the pressure on the House to pass a bill quickly.
The Senate bill also would provide financial incentives to states that crack down on distracted driving, require ignition interlock devices for DUI offenders and establish graduated driver licensing programs that restrict teenagers’ driving privileges. It also would impose new safety rules on interstate passenger buses following a number of high-profile tour bus crashes.
Unlike the last big transportation bill, passed in 2005, the new bill isn’t filled with lawmakers’ pet projects such as Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere” that drew widespread criticism.
“People like to say watching a bill become law is like watching somebody making sausage,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Environment and Public Works Committee chairwoman who led the Senate debate on the bill, said. “It’s a lot messier than that.”
The bill drew opposition from some conservatives who said it uses “budget gimmicks” to maintain funding for projects when the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax isn’t bringing in as much money because of greater use of more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The expansion of a federal loan program for local transit projects is expected to remain in a final bill because it enjoys the backing of business and labor and perhaps most notably, Boxer, who will play a key role in writing any final bill.
Officials say that $20 billion in federal loans could be made available nationally over the next two years under the legislation.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who opposed the bill, expressed concern about the risks to taxpayers from expanding the loan program. “They told us we would never lose any money on Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac,” he said.
The bill would allow for extension of the 2015 deadline — but not beyond 2018 — for railroads to install collision avoidance systems on trains carrying passengers and toxic materials if the transportation secretary determines that implementation appears unfeasible.
Congress in 2008 mandated the systems after a Metrolink commuter train collided with a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, Calif., killing 25 people and injuring more than 130. Metrolink is moving to complete installation of its $201 million collision avoidance system by mid-2013.
