The Week Ending June 16, 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:
Senate Unanimously Passes Transportation Spending Bill
The Senate approved on June 15 the Fiscal Year 2001 transportation appropriations bill with a 99-0 vote. The easy passage paves the way for a conference committee with the House, which last month passed its own version of the bill (H.R. 4775). The House’s bill would allocate $55.2 billion while the Senate version provides $54.7 billion for federal highway, transit, rail, aviation and other transportation programs. Both figures are increases from FY 2000, which funded transportation programs at $50 billion.
Senators would like to increase funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Coast Guard. Funding for the federal aid highway program is set at $30.7 billion while transit would get $6.27 billion, increases consistent with the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21). The FAA would get $12.4 billion, similar to the amount set forth in the recently passed Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR 21), and up from FY 2000 funding of $9.99 billion. The Senate bill also includes a provision to require states to adopt a legal drunk driving standards of .08 percent blood alcohol content or see a loss of federal funding; the House had considered such a provision but dropped it from its bill. Only 18 states and the District of Columbia have the .08 standard.
On a related note, the Senate also voted 95-3 to reserve $12.2 billion of the federal budget surplus for paying down the national debt.
House Passes Interior Appropriations Legislation
On June 16, the House of Representatives passed, with a vote 0f 204-172, a $14.6 billion Department of Interior Fiscal Year 2001 appropriations bill (H.R. 4578). The bill falls $302 million below FY 2000 spending and $1.7 billion below President Clinton’s budget request. The President has threatened to veto the bill in its current form, citing a provision that would stop federal agencies from undertaking a plan for managing watersheds and forests in the Northwest’s Columbia River basin until they report on its effect on neighboring communities. The bill also contains language that would bar the Interior Department from managing national monuments designated by President Clinton after 1999.
Gore Proposes New Environmental Trust Fund
Presidential candidate Al Gore recently proposed to spend part of the expected federal government budget surplus on a new "National Energy and Environmental Security Trust Fund." Gore says "the Fund is designed to bring revolutionary change to our transportation and energy infrastructure so that we can begin creating a clean environment and a stable climate." One aspect of the fund would offer support to local governments seeking to repair and replace water infrastructure, one of ASCE’s current issue priorities.
Issues Survey Coming to Your Mailbox
The next time you reach into your mailbox, you may find ASCE’s first annual Key Contact Issues Survey. ASCE’s Government Relations Department is asking you, as an important member of our Key Contact Program, to help us set our compass for 2001 on the most important public policy issues for the civil engineering profession at the federal and state/local levels. Your responses to the survey will be compiled into a report for ASCE’s Committee on Government Affairs and Board of Direction to assist in determining our public policy priorities for the 107th Congress. Please complete the survey and return it to ASCE’s Government Relations Department by July 12, 2000. If you have any questions, please contact Liz Hermsen, Manager of Grassroots Programs at govwash@asce.org or (202) 789-2200.
