WASHINGTON — Congress must pass a short-term funding bill for the country’s highways and infrastructure so that it has time to formulate a six-year spending plan, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee said Thursday.
“We will have to do an extension for the year this month because it is impossible to put in place a six-year financing package for highways in the next two weeks,” Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan said at an event hosted by Politico at the Newseum.
The law authorizing transportation spending has expired and in May President Barack Obama signed a bill temporarily extending the authority for two months. But he also called for Congress to stop relying on short-term patches and pass a six-year $478 billion package.
The White House has a “strong preference” for a long-term agreement, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday. But he did not rule out accepting another short-term deal.
The sticking point on any long-term package is finding more reliable revenue for the Highway Trust Fund, the main source of federal dollars for roads and bridges, which is backed by a tax charged at the gas pump. The gas tax has not been raised in decades and revenues have dropped as drivers turn to more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Ryan said Republicans, who control the House, would push for using the repatriation of tax dollars from U.S. corporations moving overseas under a “Plan A.” But he added they were willing to discuss a “Plan B,” that would identify other sources of money. He added that they will not raise the gas tax.
“My goal is that this fall we know where we are and we’re going to do ‘Plan A’ or ‘Plan B,’” he said.
The White House has proposed paying for infrastructure upgrades by closing certain loopholes in the tax code.
“What Chairman Ryan has proposed is slightly different than that,” Earnest told reporters, noting Ryan’s plan “may indicate an openness” to finding revenues through tax reforms.
“This could be a fruitful path for making the kinds of badly needed investments in our infrastructure that would have a positive impact on our economy,” he said.
The Senate has discussed attaching legislation reinstating the charter for the Export-Import Bank to a highway and rail bill but Ryan said the House prefers a “clean extension” of infrastructure spending authority that does not include other measures.