Speech before joint session of Congress now set for Sept. 8.

Will High Speed Rail be Part of this Speech?

by Alan Lagreen, Senior Editor Super Speed Train News

As part of an effort to spur additional job creation, the Obama administration will push Congress to keep surface transportation spending at current levels rather than subject it to cuts, according to administration sources.  Both the Huffington Post and TheHill.com reported that the President will call for Congress to pass a “clean extension” of surface transportation funding at an event with the heads of both the AFL-CIO and U.S. Chamber of Commerce set for Wednesday, Sept. 7 and it may also be included in his highly publicized speech on job creation set for the following day.

Democrats on and off Capitol Hill say that the current spending levels must be maintained if the party is to be viewed as serious about jobs. Current surface transportation spending is set to run out on September 30; if it were allowed to lapse, thousands of federal construction jobs would simply be lost.

Specific legislation in both the House and Senate that would extend the funding has caused friction between Republicans and Democrats. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, has outlined a two-year extension at the cost of $109 billion, which would keep spending at its current levels. House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair John Mica (R-FL), meanwhile, has pushed for a six-year extension but with a 34 percent reduction in the amount spent.

A top Republican aide explained that a six-year extension would “give states and transit agencies the predictability it needs to plan for long term projects.” The aide added that given diminished revenues coming into the Highway Trust Fund, it would be necessary to reduce the total amount being spent on surface transportation. “You can’t continue to write these checks that we can’t cash,” said the aide.

For Obama, however, the immediate hurdle to jump is job creation. And according to Boxer’s office, the numerical difference in dollars spent between her plan and Mica’s is the equivalent of 630,000 jobs. It was, perhaps, little surprise that at a time when it’s extremely difficult to get information about the president’s job speech, CBS News reported that the White House wanted the $109 billion, two-year package as part of Obama’s plan to “spend big on the nation’s roads and bridges.”

Conservatives attacked the plan as further evidence that the President cannot tame his spending urges, though Democrats note that $109 billion does not signal a spending increase, rather a continuation of current spending levels. The last surface transportation bill expired in September 2009.  There have been seven temporary extensions since then in order to continue work on authorized projects.

While it’s not entirely clear whether Obama will make a formal pitch for Boxer’s proposal when he delivers his jobs address, her outline does have at least one prominent Republican supporter, Environment and Public Works ranking member Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK.) With all spending set to expire in one month, the window for passage is incredibly tight and both chambers of Congress will rarely be in session simultaneously during September.

Most transportation advocates predict that Congress will resolve the issue as it has in the recent past — by simply extending the current law until some future moment. That would keep current projects funded for now. But it would also mean that lawmakers will have punted on specific legislative changes that could spur even more job creation, such as allocating $1 billion for a program, which helps communities use federal credit assistance — direct loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit — to leverage their transportation projects.

Beyond these efforts, it remains to be seen if High Speed Rail  will receive specific mention in Thursday’s address.