House Committees Approve TEA LU Bill
March 3, 2005
(Download
in Adobe PDF format)
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Action
On March 2, the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I)
Committee marked up its TEA 21 reauthorization bill, the Transportation Equity
Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA LU; H.R. 3). The bill would authorize $283.9
billion in funding for transit and highway programs for six years through
FY 2009, including $52.3 billion in guaranteed funding for public transportation.
The bill is silent on the highway minimum allocation issue, which is expected
to be resolved next week after further negotiations.
In general, H.R. 3 is essentially the same as last year's
House-passed bill (H.R. 3550), with slightly increased funding levels. The
bill does include a new Buy America provision in the transit title which calls
for an FTA rulemaking to clarify the scope of any microprocessor waiver and
to define the term "end product" through development of a list of
representative items. The bill and accompanying report language include new
starts and bus earmarks. The funding levels and transit provisions of the
bill were summarized in APTA's February 17, 2005, Legislative Update available
on the Government Affairs section of www.apta.com; earmarks and the bill language,
including the Manager's Amendment added yesterday, are available for review
on the House T&I Committee's website at www.house.gov/transportation/highway/tealu.html
(New starts earmarks are in the "Managers' Amendment"; bus earmarks
may be found in "Insert 2.")
House Ways and Means Committee Action
On March 3, the House Ways and Means Committee marked up the revenue title
of TEA LU. The Committee marked up a "clean" extension of current
law taxes and fees paid into the Highway Trust Fund through 2011. Historically
the tax title of the bill is authorized for two years beyond the authorization
period of the bill.
Outlook in the House
The Ways and Means title is likely to be incorporated into H.R. 3 next week
by the Rules Committee. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has stated
that the House will consider the bill next week.
Outlook in the Senate
Key transportation authorizing committees in the Senate continue to develop
highway and transit legislation. It is unclear whether the Senate Environment
and Public Works and Senate Banking Committees will mark up highway and transit
legislation before the Easter recess, which begins March 18. The Senate Finance
Committee will also need to approve the tax title of the Senate bill.
For more information, please contact Rob Healy of APTA's Government Affairs
Department at (202) 496-4811 or email rhealy@apta.com;
or visit the Government Affairs Section of the APTA website at www.apta.com.
Some of these pages may include links to documents in the Adobe PDF format. Please download the Adobe PDF reader if you have not already done so.
