Expect Two (Radically Different) Reauthorization Proposals Soon

The Environment and Public Works Committee is getting ready to introduce their transportation reauthorization bill, according to reports by the Journal of Commerce. The committee has, shrewdly, worked closely with Finance Committee Chair (and EPW leader) Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) on a way to pay for the bill, in order to avoid a situation like the one the administration found itself in: introducing an ambitious bill with no chance of passage.

The big news on the EPW plans:

• It’s a two-year bill, as Baucus has suggested. Over the last few months, more and more key players have moved toward a two-year bill as a way to avoid locking in deep funding cuts. One notable exception: Rep. John Mica, whose House Transportation Committee bill is likely to still be a six-year bill.
• It costs $12 billion more than the Highway Trust Fund will bring in, meaning the Finance Committee will need to find a way to pay for that overage. (According to the CBO, the trust fund is projected to bring in $85.5 billion in 2012 and 2013, so that would mean a $97 billion bill.)
• The bill has the support of the committee’s Big Four: Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-OK), as well as Max Baucus (D-MT) and David Vitter (R-LA), chair and ranking member of the highway subcommittee. We’ll be looking to see what compromises were necessary in order to forge consensus among such disparate ideologies. One significant point of contention among them is whether bicycle and pedestrian programs deserve a place in the federal program.