The Week Ending January 14, 2000
This weekly report is written by ASCE's Government Relations staff. If you have questions or comments about any items in this report, please contact Brian Pallasch, Michael Charles, Martin Hight, Austin Fulk, or Liz Hermsen at 202/789-2200.
Inside This Week:
Congress May Pass TEA-21 Corrections this Session
Both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have said that they plan to tackle legislation making corrections to the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).
The House committee wants to address individual highway and transit projects contained in the six-year authorization act, especially projects wanted by Members, all of whom are up for re-election this year. Early this year, the Senate committee would like to move legislation addressing project needs and other issues, without affecting the Fiscal Year 2001 budget resolution.
Meanwhile, the Clinton Administration anticipates gas tax revenues to the Highway Trust Fund will be more than $2.5 billion above projections expected when TEA-21 became law. In its FY 2001 budget to be released next month, the Administration is expected to reallocate gas tax revenue surpluses to programs such as the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program. The Administration would apply the surplus to the programs according to its own prescription and not by specifications in TEA-21. In its FY 2000 budget, the Administration directed a portion of last year’s Highway Trust Fund surplus to transit, research, and other programs. However, the House and Senate mostly rejected that proposal and made only a few changes in TEA-21 fund allocations in the final appropriations bill.
Appeals Courts Voids EPA Rule on Reformulated Gasoline
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has struck down an Environmental Protection Agency regulation that extended the use of reformulated gasoline (RFG) to areas of the country that did not have or never had air pollution problems. This was the third time in less than a year that the federal Court of Appeals in Washington has struck down an EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act.
Congress limited the scope of the RFG program to those areas of the country that are most seriously affected by ozone pollution from motor vehicles, the Court of Appeals said last week.
"In guiding the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency to limit ozone concentrations, Congress in the Clean Air Act authorized limited reliance on RFG," the court said. "[Congress] directed that RFG should initially be mandatory in the nine worst ozone areas with populations over 250,000, with any area later classified as 'severe' to be added as well. And it also provided for 'opt-in,' i.e., for election by a state to demand an EPA ban on the sale of non-RFG in specified areas.
"But Congress carefully limited the eligible areas '[to] any area in the state classified ... as a marginal, moderate, serious, or severe area.' "
In its 1998 regulation, however, EPA stated that any "area currently or previously designated as a nonattainment area for ozone ... or any time later, may be included [in the RFG program] on petition of the governor." This was beyond the scope of the Clean Air Act, the court concluded. "[The] rule swept into 'opt-in' a variety of areas not belonging to the four categories specified by Congress," the three-judge panel said.
New Regional Report Card Guides Available
A new edition of “Regional Report Cards: A Guide to Grading your Community’s Infrastructure” is now available from ASCE national. This comprehensive manual contains all of the information that you and your section need to produce a report card on your state’s or region’s infrastructure. The Guide is easier to use than ever, and provides a step-by-step approach to selecting infrastructure data to evaluate, gathering infrastructure data, developing criteria to use in evaluating infrastructure, assigning grades, and promoting the report card to appropriate audiences. ASCE staff are available to help you use this guide as a tool to produce a regional report card and use the report card to spark a discussion of infrastructure needs in your area. ASCE’s 1998 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure had a huge impact when it was released; for more information on the national report card, take a look at the 1998 Report Card for America's Infrastructure. If you would like a copy of the guide or want more information about producing a regional report card, please contact Austin Fulk, Manager of State Government Relations, at (202) 789-2200 or via email at govwash@asce.org.
