Transportation bill gridlock

Here’s how bad things have gotten in Washington: A transportation bill passed Wednesday by the Senate, which does nothing to solve the highway system’s long-term funding problem and will complicate transportation planning because it extends current funding for only two years rather than mapping out a comprehensive plan for five, is being hailed as a bipartisan triumph and is quite possibly the only piece of major legislation the upper house will approve this year.

But that’s at least better than the situation in the radically dysfunctional House. In that chamber, passing a transportation bill before the end of March — when the federal government’s authority to collect the gas tax expires, forcing transportation projects nationwide to come to a halt — is thought to be highly unlikely.

It was not always thus. Five-year transportation bills had traditionally cruised through both chambers, but they hit a roadblock in 2009 amid disagreements over whether to supplement or raise the gas tax, which is no longer sufficient to meet the country’s infrastructure and maintenance needs. Since then, Congress has been passing short-term extensions of the 2005 bill. But the current gridlock goes way beyond the gas tax. It arises because lawmakers have agreed not to include earmarks, which in times past drew members of both parties together for the sake of collecting some pork for their home districts, and also because the Republican-controlled House is being steered by a tea-party-backed coalition that would rather throw ideological bombs than make laws or run the government.

An early House version of this key legislation was packed with amendments having nothing to do with transportation and everything to do with scoring political points against Democrats and President Obama, such as proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or force approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-ohio) couldn’t even rally his own party to back the monstrosity, let alone attract any Democrats. Because the GOP can’t seem to resist further gamesmanship, there is thought to be no chance of a bipartisan bill in the House, and little chance Republicans will agree on anything before the end of March. The most likely outcome is another short-term funding extension.

Disappointing though the Senate transportation bill may be, it does contain valuable provisions, especially the expansion of a federal loan program for transportation projects. That should speed construction of important transit lines in L.A., and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who lobbied heavily for the concept, deserves kudos for his success. The wisest thing for the House would be to simply pass the Senate version. But we gave up expecting wisdom, or even common sense, from that body some time ago.