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TODAY Wednesday 10 September 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: The Porkbarrel Works for You

At the end of September will expire the federal law authorizing transportation expenditures. This fact rarely attracts the notice of editors and opinionizers, even though the $35 billion-or-so at stake each year make federal transportation the biggest item on the US shopping list after defense, Social Security, and Medicare. You hear so much more noise about programs that cost one-half of one percent of $35 billion.

Robust libertarian notions about minimal government wilt in the heat of sunny transportation funds, almost all of which go for road-building and maintenance. Republicans and Democrats compete in their enthusiasm. It is now enshrined as a conventional piety that government has an important role to play in spurring economic growth by providing a solid public transportation infrastructure for private carriers (except if the subject is rail infrastructure which, somehow, is different). Unions love transportation spending and they and the industries that make money off roads and traffic (cement, construction, steel, cars, trucks) tend to be handsome campaign contributors. What's not to like?

It astonishes no one that both the House and the Senate are currently debating reauthorization legislation at expenditure levels above the already-high transportation ceiling established by the recent budget bill. The Senate is talking about a six-year bill that's a little more than the budget deal allows; the House wants a three-year bill that would come in at $17 billion over budget. (For a good rundown visit the website of the Environmental Defense Fund.)

The House bill is particularly expensive because it gives everybody what they want. The pavers get more roads, the states get more freedom from federal regulations, and the enviros and the Northeasterners get more money for buses and bike paths. It's tempting.

The enviros are pleased that the provision which pays for clean air strategies -- the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program -- would be re-authorized at record levels, as would the green-shaded Transportation Enhancements program. They are displeased that the eligibility for CMAQ funds would be loosened so that the cement-pourers at the state capital could probably build a road or two in the name of congestion mitigation. Enviros are also wary of "streamlined" environmental-impact reviews, although they admit in private that the complicated review process mandated by current law (which is generally unobserved) seems to have been drafted in a non-Indo-European tongue.

The Senate version, steered by Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island, would spend less than the House version on CMAQ (and everything else) but would not loosen CMAQ eligibility. The Clinton Administration, which has evinced no particular convictions on transportation policy over the past four years, tends to the Senate side. The bill that finally emerges from conference committee will probably split the difference and will probably be signed by the President. If so, then the action will shift to the states to a degree unprecedented in federal transportation spending; all the proposals share a tendency to leave more flexibility for state disbursements. This is good news for enviros in the sense that the legal authority will be there to promote pro-transit and anti-sprawl policies. This is bad news in the sense that enviros have not yet demonstrated much in the way of persistent influence on state infrastructure policies. The fight will be fought in Albany and Sacramento and Harrisburg and Denver and Lansing and Tallahassee. The glamour!

 

TODAY ON THE SITE:

If you would like a little relief from the constrained world of the transportation here-and-now and could use a wee peak over the near horizon, why not check into our High Fives feature on High-Speed Rail? Let Howard Learner, head of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago, take you on a tour of bullet-train websites around the globe.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

9/09: Climate Change Changes
9/08: More or Less Voluntary Simplicity
9/05: Man Bites Cougar
9/04: Logging
9/03: Fishing
9/02: Our Biodiversity Problems
8/29: Babies
8/28: MegaSheep and SuperCow
8/27: East Asia / Southeast Asia
8/26: No Drama on the Rhine

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.