Solution to crumbling roads, bridges elusive

WASHINGTON — The nation's crumbling roads, bridges and transit systems are at the point of hindering U.S. economic growth, but Congress is struggling to come up with a solution.

The problems are numerous.

One of the big problems: Americans have been driving less for several years due to a slow economy, reducing revenue from the gas tax, the normal way to pay for transportation improvements. Lawmakers have no easy solutions on how to find the money to maintain the current transportation network, much less begin to address a staggering backlog of projects.

A sweeping House Republican plan to transform federal transportation programs was quickly attacked this week from the left as a giveaway to greedy, well-heeled industries and from the right as an example of big government overspending.

And a House transportation committee meeting Thursday to approve the $260 billion, 4<0x00BD> -year bill was marked by bitter partisanship and occasional shouting. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the committee's chairman, said he felt like "a referee in a big food fight."

The nation hasn't had a long-term transportation policy in place since the last legislation expired in 2009. Congress has kept programs going through short-term extensions, the most recent of which expires March 31, and some lawmakers say they won't go along with another Band-Aid fix. That could set the stage for a partisan standoff like the one that caused a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration last summer and forced the temporary layoff of tens of thousands workers in construction-related jobs.

Adding to the pressure: The federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for highway and transit programs, is going broke. A new Congressional Budget Office forecast estimates the government will have to delay payments to states beginning sometime in the 2013 federal budget year, which could force some projects to shut down.

Democrats said Republicans, who control the House, denied them input into the bill and are trying to flatline transportation spending when more money is needed.

"It signals a retreat from creating greater transportation opportunities," said Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the panel's senior Democrat.

Mica defended the bill as "the most dramatic overhaul and reform to (transportation) programs since the beginning of the interstate system" five decades ago. Among other things, the bill would consolidate more than 100 programs into about 30, and take away much of the federal government's leverage over how states spend highway and transit aid.