ISTEA BREWING OCTOBER 20, 1997 NEWSHOUR TRANSCRIPT

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The recent expiration of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, better known as ISTEA, has Congress, state governments and various interest groups fighting over the terms of its reauthorization. Tom Bearden begins the coverage from the road, followed by a Kwame Holman report from Congress.

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A RealAudio version of this segment is available. NEWSHOUR LINKS: August 29, 1997 Bicyclists protest local policies concerning traffic rights. August 20, 1997 How electric cars will change the way we drive. February 12, 1997 The Online NewsHour reports on the growing regional fight over ISTEA. December 10, 1996 Experts report major traffic problems for many urban areas. Browse NewsHour coverage of transportation issues. OUTSIDE LINKS Visit the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Surface Subcommittee Web sites. The Democrats have also established a Committee Web site for their views.

TOM BEARDEN: It gets more looks than a flashy sports car as it cruises down the highway. This is an automatic road analyzer that measures and records cracks, potholes, and rough pavement, using video cameras, lasers, video recorders, and an elaborate computer system. Gary Hoffman is the chief engineer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

GARY HOFFMAN, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation: What we're doing with the data we're collecting--the roughness data and also the pavement distress data that you see here in the background--we're looking at cracking patterns, and faulting and rutting, different distress types that you would see on the pavement. We're using that data now to best program the projects and best utilize the monies that we have available to us.

TOM BEARDEN: About 65 percent of those monies come from the federal government under a law called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act--usually called by its acronym: ISTEA. The $155 billion program was signed into law by President George Bush in 1991 and was intended to fundamentally change the way transportation projects were funded. One of the biggest changes was that it gave much more authority to local transportation officials. Previously, state agencies pretty much called the shots. Brad Mallory is Pennsylvania's Transportation Secretary.

BRAD MALLORY, Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary: It's broadened decision-making and it's grown local support for our decisions. It's no longer the big bad state coming in and saying this is where the money's going; this is where the highway goes. But rather it's all of us cooperating together to say here's what's going to be done. And I also think that the breadth of categories, the focus on broader issues than just highway issues has been important. We're a transportation department, not a highway department now.

TOM BEARDEN: ISTEA set aside 24 billion dollars to encourage local officials to explore alternative transportation projects--like light rail and bike paths. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania didn't build many bike paths. The state has over 40,000 miles of older roads and more than double the national average of truck traffic. So officials still spent the vast majority of ISTEA funds for highway maintenance and construction. But halfway across the country in Colorado planners reacted differently.

Rapid growth in and around Denver has meant very congested highways during rush hour. ISTEA allowed Colorado officials to shift more than $18 million out of highway projects and into light rail and bicycle trails in hopes of relieving some of the pressure. Cal Marsella is the manager of the Denver Regional Transit Department.

ISTEA: Refreshing for some...

CAL MARSELLA, Denver Regional Transit: We can't continue to build additional highways because it'll simply spur more pollution, more congestion and doesn't solve the problem. So I found it very refreshing here, quite honestly, that there's been a recognition and acceptance of the fact that a multi-modal approach is the most intelligent approach to solving congestion and growth problems here in the area.

TOM BEARDEN: Kelly Wark is an environmentalist with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group who rollerblades or bikes to work most days. Although she says cars are still the largest source of pollution in Denver, she says ISTEA has started to make a difference.

KELLY WARK, Colorado Environmentalist: We've seen tremendous benefits. We're starting to clean up our air, provide a more balanced system that includes transit, bike paths and pedestrian facilities, things that really provide people with choices, not just more traffic.

TOM BEARDEN: But skeptics say ISTEA hasn't done much to improve the rush hour or the nation's transportation system. Now ISTEA is up for re-authorization, and a host of competing interests--from truckers to environmentalists--are arguing over how it could or should be changed. The Highway Users Alliance is a lobbying organization which represents motorists and truckers. The organization's president, William Fay, told a recent news conference that the nation's highways have deteriorated badly under ISTEA.

WILLIAM FAY, Highway Users Alliance: 28 percent of our roads are in poor to mediocre condition. And 32 percent of our bridges are deficient. It's no wonder that despite more of us wearing seat belts, fewer of us driving drunk, and safer cars on the road, our nation's highway death toll has climbed in each of the past five years.

...not so refreshing for others.

TOM BEARDEN: Members of the alliance are most angry about the $2.1 billion designated for so-called enhancement projects. Like the four million dollars spent to fix up a cemetery in Austin, Texas, or the $300,000 spent to repair the capitol dome in Charleston, West Virginia; or the $36,000 spent to restore the mural at the civic center in Helena, Montana. The regulations have been tightened, and such projects probably would not be approved today. But Fay says the mere segregation of funds for "enhancement" keeps the money from being spent on more important needs.

WILLIAM FAY: They don't allow those state officials to do things like straighten Dead Man's Curve or fix a train crossing that's been the site of a number of accidents.

TOM BEARDEN: What about the argument that it is not a lot of money and that even if you did spend it on road improvements, it wouldn't amount to much?

WILLIAM FAY: Well, you hear a lot of people say that it isn't a lot of money. It's $2.1 billion. Now only in Washington would two thousand, one hundred million dollars not be a lot of money. But to put this in perspective, that $2.1 billion is more than 36 states around the country got for their entire highway program.

TOM BEARDEN: Many truckers are angry that some of their gas tax dollars are being spent on bike paths and light rail projects. Lenny Yokum has been driving a tractor trailer for more than two decades.

LENNY YOKUM: Over the years, the fuel tax that I pay, and the highway user tax that I pay, was originally designated to go back into the highways. Over the years that has varied and all the money doesn't come back here. There's nothing I can do about that, but I'd like to see them get their priorities with the money that they tax you for, back to where it's supposed to be spent.

TOM BEARDEN: And money is what the argument over ISTEA is all about. As Congress considers how to re-authorize ISTEA, not just interest groups but also regions of the country are fighting over the spoils. Northeastern states tend to get more money back than they collect. Pennsylvania, for example, gets about a $1.16 for every dollar they send to Washington. Southern and Midwestern states are known as "donor" states, because they get back less, and they very much want to change that situation.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill...

KWAME HOLMAN: On Capitol Hill new Republican voting strength, representing Southern and Midwestern states almost guarantees those regions will get a greater percentage of federal money in any new highway legislation at the expense of the Northeast.

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), New Jersey: The result is that New Jersey is number 50 among states, last in getting a return on the tax dollars it sends to give to Washington. And I hear about it from all of my constituents. Let me tell you.

KWAME HOLMAN: Whatever Congress does has to be done quickly. ISTEA, the six-year Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, expired on September 30th. There still is money in the project pipeline but Congress is under pressure to approve a new highway and mass transit bill before that money runs out and before time runs out on the current legislative session.

SEN. TRENT LOTT, Majority Leader: I think this is perhaps the most important bill left that we need to get done before we go out for the year sometime later on this month or early in November.

KWAME HOLMAN: And most members of Congress are anxious to get it done because a new transportation bill will mean hundreds of thousands--even millions of dollars in public works projects for their states and districts.

REP. RAY LaHOOD, (R) Illinois: The reason that every member of the House of Representatives wanted to be on the Transportation Committee this year is because we're writing the ISTEA bill. Seventy-three members serve on this committee, the largest number in the House of Representatives.

KWAME HOLMAN: The chairman of the House Transportation Committee is 13-term Republican Bud Shuster, regarded as the undisputed champion of federal highway projects, including the Bud Shuster Highway--a four lane stretch of road through his hometown of Everett, Pennsylvania. Shuster's authority over millions of dollars in highway projects has made him one of the most popular committee chairmen on Capitol Hill and one of the most powerful.

REP. JAMES OBERSTAR, (D) Minnesota: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. You have been a champion and a leader as we move forward to shape the future for transportation in America.

KWAME HOLMAN: And last month that kind of support turned into votes. Shuster' s committee unanimously approved the new transportation bill he wrote, even though it contained so much spending it threatened to collapse the five-year balanced budget deal Congress and the President had signed on to just weeks earlier. But Shuster said he was well within his rights.

REP. BUD SHUSTER, Chairman, Transportation Committee: I was told in meetings with the Republican leadership during the budget negotiations that if there were more revenue coming in we would be "first in line."

KWAME HOLMAN: Indeed, recently revised projections show there could be 135 billion dollars more in federal revenues over the next five than the budget deal anticipated. So in mid September Chairman Shuster and his committee drew up an aggressive three-year transportation bill that exceeded the spending limits set by the budget negotiators by more than 16 billion dollars--34 billion if projected through the life of the five-year budget deal.

REP. BUD SHUSTER: We need to build infrastructure for America. The good news is the money is there to do it.

KWAME HOLMAN: The budget negotiators couldn't have disagreed more.

SEN. PETE DOMENICI: It seems to me that every time some group or some committee wants more money than we had in the budget, the first thing they start talking about is there's plenty of money in the budget to spend because we have a small surplus in the year 2002

REP. JOHN KASICH: I think we ought to slow down. I think we ought to maintain the integrity of the balanced budget that passed, and I think rather than licking our chops and trying to figure out how to expand government, what we ought to do is hold our breath and work everyday to convince people that this agreement is not some house of cards.

KWAME HOLMAN: And so a stand off developed. On one side were the Republican leaders of Congress who negotiated the balanced budget deal with the president. On the other side was the powerful chairman and his committee, along with a solid block of rank-and-file members who appeared ready to support Shuster in the event of a floor fight.

REP. JAMES OBERSTAR: We are, as the chairman said, going to see this bill through subcommittee and through full committee, and we're going to get it to the House floor because America deserves it.

KWAME HOLMAN: But before Chairman Bud Shuster could bring his transportation bill to the floor, House Speaker Newt Gingrich stepped in and convinced him not to. Gingrich reportedly told Shuster a floor fight over the transportation would cause an embarrassing split among Republicans. Shuster refused to reduce the size of his bill but did agree to hold it until next spring and in the meantime support a six month extension of the original ISTEA bill.

REP. BUD SHUSTER: The committee will come to order--

KWAME HOLMAN: Shuster then went back and sold the idea to his committee.

'Bud'ding Power

REP. BUD SHUSTER: One of the reasons we should pass a short term bill now rather-- and fight our battles in the spring is because there will be a debate on how we spend or what we do with the additional revenues flowing into the federal government. If we were to pass a long term bill now at the lower levels, we would be frozen out of the debate that is going to take place as to how we spend and use the additional revenues coming in.

KWAME HOLMAN: And, judging by their response, members of the committee did not need much convincing.

REP. JAMES OBERSTAR: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, that deserves an applause. (applause)

KWAME HOLMAN: But the House's decision to put of action on new transportation bill for six months leaves the Senate unsure of what it should do.

SPOKESMAN: At 2:30 the Senate will resume consideration of S1173--the ISTEA legislation.

KWAME HOLMAN: Senators returned from a one week recess today to continue work on their highway bill--written by Republicans and Democrats on the Senate's Environmental and Public Works Committee--the bill would re-authorize and expand the original ISTEA bill but with only modest increases in spending. Unlike the Shuster bill in the House, the Senate bill does fall within the parameters of the balanced bud get agreement. Rhode Island Republican John Chafee is the committee's chairman.

SEN. JOHN CHAFEE: I'm committed to living within the budget. And whether there's money to be found in some fashion--who knows. That would be splendid if there was. But again I am committed to staying within the budget.

KWAME HOLMAN: Today, Sen. Chafee still was holding out hope the Senate would approve his new highway bill before the November recess. But unless he gets the cooperation of the House, it's likely Chafee will have to follow the lead of Chairman Shuster, accept a six-month extension of the current highway bill and work out a long-term bill in the spring.

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