House approves $715B highway bill as action on bigger infrastructure plan looms

• The main function of the House bill is to extend federal highway legislation for five more years.
• The House approved the bill on a nearly party-line vote of 221 to 201; two Republicans voted yes.

WASHINGTON – The House approved a $715 billion highway bill Thursday along mostly party lines, legislation promoted as a companion to a larger infrastructure package that President Joe Biden has been negotiating with key senators.

The House approved the bill on a nearly party-line vote of 221 to 201. Two Republicans – Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Chris Smith of New Jersey – joined alDemocrats in supporting the bill.

The primary function of the House legislation is to extend federal highway legislation, which is set to expire Sept. 30, for another five years. The bill would authorize spending on highways, wastewater treatment and drinking water plants.

“If we don’t do this bill, then we are doomed to an even more inefficient and decrepit future,” said Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

DeFazio has said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could make parts of his legislation part of the $1.2 trillion deal that senators and Biden agreed to last week.

But the top Republican on the House panel, Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, said the spending would increase the debt and inflation.

“This bill is completely unpaid for,” Graves said. “It is completely unpaid for, something I’ve never seen in a highway bill in my two decades here in Congress.”

DeFazio said the bill includes:

• $100 billion for the backlog in transit repairs.
• $95 billion for railways, including $32 billion to support Amtrak’s national network and northeast corridor.
• $50 billion for wastewater treatment systems.
• $32 billion for bridges, including $4 billion for major projects and $1 billion for tribal bridges.
• $10 billion to protect bicyclists and pedestrians.
• $4 billon for charging electric vehicles and to invest in alternative fuels and $4 billion for zero-emission transit vehicles.

The bill also creates two programs with funding determined by formulas to confront climate change, one aimed at reducing carbon pollution and one to enhance the transportation system against extreme weather.

“We need to reform our transportation policies to meet the challenges of today,” DeFazio said.

But Graves blasted the bill as extremely partisan for relying on deficit spending. Graves said the bill wouldn’t be approved in the narrowly divided Senate, which has 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans with ties broken by Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This was a missed opportunity for partnership and for passing a bill that addresses the real infrastructure needs of all our communities, from our largest cities to the most rural areas,” Graves said.

The bulk of the Highway Trust Fund is paid for by the federal gas tax of 18.3 cents per gallon. But that rate, which hasn’t changed since 1993, hasn’t kept pace with construction priorities as cars became more fuel efficient.

Since 2008, Congress has transferred $157 billion from the general treasury to cover shortfalls in the Highway Trust Fund, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But lawmakers of both parties have refused to raise the gas tax, and finding alternative funding sources has been difficult. The last highway bill authorized $305 billion over five years with a patchwork of one-time funding such as selling off part of the strategic petroleum reserve.