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By Katie Cross, Associate, Blakey & Agnew
Primaries for the 2018 mid-term elections are well underway, meaning lawmakers are turning their attention to campaigning and retreating from the Capitol. This is making it increasingly clear that we will not see the passage of an infrastructure bill this year, despite early-2018 hopes. Beginning as one of the hallmarks of President Trump's campaign, this Administration has touted a large infrastructure investment bill, outside of and in addition to the normal reauthorization and funding bills, as one of its top priorities. For lawmakers, an infrastructure bill was seen as one potential bipartisan area of agreement in an increasingly partisan Congress. However, within days of the release of the White House's infrastructure outline in February 2018, Members of Congress were criticizing it for its lack of a "realistic" funding mechanism. Within weeks, Speaker Ryan (R-WI) was downplaying the potential of one large investment package, saying the infrastructure bill would really be five or six smaller bills if it passed this Congress at all. The Administration gradually became more pessimistic about the potential of a bill, with the President saying that Democrats did not want to hand a "win" to the Administration this close to an election and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders eventually stating she didn't know if there would be a bill by the end of 2018 at all.
While the promised infrastructure bill, if we see one at all, has again been postponed, this does not mean that Congress has nothing left to do prior to the conclusion of the 115th Congress. With several "must-pass" pieces of legislation sitting on the table, they still have a busy to-do list to check off before the end of 2018, including several infrastructure proposals that Congress must address to keep existing programs afloat.
The passage of the Water Resource Development Act (WRDA) in 2014 established a two-year schedule for future WRDA bills in order to ensure "that Congress upholds its responsibility to authorize nationally important water infrastructure improvements." The most recent WRDA bill became law in 2016 and so, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced the text of the 2018 WRDA bill on May 18, 2018. As the 2014 and 2016 WRDA bills did, the 2018 bill would provide for improvements in U.S. ports, inland waterways, locks, dams, and other water resources infrastructure. House Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member DeFazio (D-OR) included a provision in the original text of the bill that would ensure that funds deposited in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) would be spent on harbor maintenance projects, their original intended purpose. Currently, there is a balance in the HMTF that is used to offset other Federal expenditures. Congressman DeFazio's HMTF provision was removed from the bill but he and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Shuster (R-PA) introduced an amendment that is intended to remove any
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disincentive for the appropriations committees to not spend the HMTF funds for their intended purpose. However, it is possible this amendment will also be stripped from the bill. The 2018 WRDA bill will likely be considered by the full House during the week of June 4, 2018.
A long-term Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, or else another extension, must also be passed this year. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 authorized appropriations for FAA through fiscal year 2015 while subsequent bills have provided short-term extensions, most recently through September 30, 2018. In mid-April, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Shuster, as well as the rest of the leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, introduced the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, which would authorize appropriations for the FAA for around five years. The bill passed the House and now awaits consideration in the Senate.
Congress must also tackle its annual appropriations process before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2018. The House Appropriations Committee introduced the text of the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill in mid-May, proposing to provide $27.8 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). It includes $750 million for the BUILD (formerly TIGER) discretionary grant program, $250 million more than average TIGER levels but $750 million less than fiscal year 2018 (FY18) enacted levels. The Senate is expected to introduce and consider their THUD appropriations bill during the week of June 4, 2018.
Other legislative priorities include a farm bill and immigration reform. And there is the possibility that pieces of President Trump's infrastructure plan, such as the project delivery reforms, could be included in any of these bills as policy riders. Between these bills and campaigning, the 115th Congress will have to move efficiently in order to complete the top items on its agenda. But it might have more time than originally planned to complete it all - Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) is expected to shorten the usual month-long August recess to give Congress more time to fit in all the legislative items.
Blakey & Agnew, LLC is a public affairs and
communications consulting firm based in
Washington, DC.
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