The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) expired on September 30, 2003 but continues to be funded while Congress considers various reauthorization options. The administration has offered its proposal, which is entitled SAFETEA -- Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 while on 11/19/2003 a bi-partisan group in the House introduced H.R. 3550, “The Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users.” The $375 million dollar plan proposes approximately $69 billion be spent on public transportation while $298 billion is allocated for various highway programs, both over a six year period.

The levels of spending proposed in H.R. 3550 are significantly higher than either the administration’s plan or alternatives that have been introduced in the Senate. Given that many highway projects fall into the “pork barrel” category, it was to be expected that the House version would be more costly as our representatives try to “bring home the bacon” for their home districts. With three divergent views on funding levels, the transportation funding reauthorization process is expected to go well into the first quarter of 2004.

Although it is too early to determine the impact on specific projects, the SAFETEA alternative contains an issue that must be of prime concern to all environmentalists. The proposal contains language that would allow the transportation agencies to approve their own environmental studies and then certify remedies, all without outside intervention or needing to deal with annoying matters such as the Clean Water Act. Basically, as proposed, all they will have to do is declare that they comply and they will have done so.

At this stage many components of the legislation are still up in the air, including the amount of funding and how the funds will be distributed. Given the direction that recent major legislation has gone, environmentalists should not take this bill lightly or wait until the last minute to begin lobbying efforts.

With the exception of a link to the good people at the Surface Transportation Policy Project’s site (STTP), all of the links below are to government sponsored sites dealing with the transportation funding reauthorization process. Included in the information are the legislative proposals, some rather biased analyses and early projections of distribution by state. We are not going to provide our normal thumbnail description of each site as there is a substantial information overlap between the sites and the material will be subject to significant change as the legislation goes through the process.

Links

Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) – Check this site frequently for updates on the reauthorization process. They do an excellent job.

Government Sites

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization/

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization/safetea.htm

http://www.house.gov/transportation/highway/05-20-03/05-20-03memo.html