The Expiration of Federal Surface Transportation Programs

R-Sen Jim Bunning

With Washington becoming increasingly polarised in recent months, the many issues being debated were always going to see programs fall by the wayside as casualties of political infighting. This week, thanks to an objection (and a filibuster) by Republican Senator Jim Bunning (of Kentucky), the new month began without any rules in place to govern federal transportation programs, not to mention no benefits for a large portion of the population for 30 days

So what does this mean for Department of Transport employees and the federal programs currently underway?

According to the DC.Streets.Blog, the delay in establishing new rules of the sector could see "forced furloughs for nearly 2,000 US DOT employees" as well as "a shutdown of federal funding for road, bridge, bike-ped, and transit projects." The processing of money for stimulus construction work and state-based road safety groups will also see an interruption.

So why did Bunning do something so catastrophic? Well, he argued that the government needed to add a provision stipulating how it would pay the $10 billion hence the 'enforced leave' for DOT workers. It is expected that most of the job cuts will come from the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

Of course, all of this will affect the private sector, something Senator Bunning probably didn't think about, as construction firms lay down tools on projects that suddenly have no federal inspectors there.

Speaking to the Infrastructurist, Larry Brown, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation put it, “If you do the math, we’re talking about more than $153 million a day in lost reimbursement payments for highway projects to the states."

Susan Martinovich, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation, concurred saying: "The timing could not be worse….States need every dollar they can get to improve our aging roads and bridges and put people to work. My home state of Nevada has the nation’s seventh-highest unemployment rate at 10.4 percent.

"We should be awarding contracts for spring construction right now, but instead many states are forced to delay, and in some cases cancel, projects."

Everything's not lost?

There is hope though, House transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar has secured a promise that future Senate legislation will temper his panel's frustration with a provision in the pending jobs bill that would apply 2009 earmarks to $932 million in 2010 transportation grants.

That agreement would help pave the way for the Senate jobs bill, if both chambers can agree quickly on it. If so, the flow of federal funding for local projects would likely be turned back on.

To highlight what is at risk, Oberstar's committee has released a rundown of how the imperiled extension would affect U.S. infrastructure programs:- Click here

When politicians are making the country's infrastructure and transportation a battlefield, you know things are getting bad.

Update

The US Senate has today (03/03/2009) passed stopgap legislation to keep benefits flowing for the long-term jobless and funding for road building. Huzzah!

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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