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Last week, the campaign arm of House Republicans – the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) – issued a press release claiming Democrats want to raise the gas tax.  Not only was the press release irresponsible, but it was inaccurate.  As the 114th Congress began last week, Democrats and Republicans jumped into the discussion of potential Highway Trust Fund solutions and members of both parties acknowledged that the need to keep all options on the table – including a gas tax increase.

As the price of gas continues to drop at the pump and the Highway Trust Fund once again approaches a zero balance, the idea of increasing the gas tax is circulating the halls of Congress.  Several members of Congress made news this week by not dismissing a gas tax increase as one of the potential ways to address the upcoming Highway Trust Fund shortfall, including Senate Environment & Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). 

www.HardhatsforHighways.org With gas taxes making news in Washington this week, now is a great time to contact your representative and ask them to sign on to a bipartisan letter in support of needed transportation funding currently being circulated in the House.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it will not regulate coal combustion waste, including fly ash, as a hazardous substance and by doing so will preserve the future beneficial use of this product in concrete and most other construction applications. Â鶹ÊÓƵhas been actively involved in working to convince EPA that a hazardous designation was unnecessary and would have an extremely detrimental impact on the future use of fly ash and raise liability concerns about its previous use.

The Federal Highway Administration this week finalized an agreement with Texas to allow TX-DOT to assume responsibilities for environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to ensure that highway projects in the state comply with environmental law. As part of the project delivery reforms contained in both the SAFETEA-LU transportation authorization legislation, and MAP-21, states are allowed to take on the environmental review responsibilities of the US DOT.

Passage Expected in Senate This afternoon, the House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion funding bill for fiscal year (FY) 2015 by a vote of 219-206.  The bill funds most of the government through September 2015.  The House will also takes steps to allow the Senate time to vote while avoiding a government shutdown at midnight tonight.  In addition to funding the government, the bill included many policy riders. 

The Senate followed the lead of the House of Representatives and passed a $1.1 trillion funding bill for fiscal year (FY) 2015 and the President has signed it. The bill funds most of the government through September 2015. It also includes many policy riders some of which impact the construction industry (easing of hours of service limits on truck drivers was included). Included in the bill are appropriations for the highway and transit programs.

Four House members from two committees critical to the highway reauthorization are asking their colleagues to sign onto a letter to House leadership that expresses strong bipartisan commitment for addressing transportation needs by providing a long-term funding solution.  It is a bipartisan Dear Colleague letter that is now being circulated by Reps, Ribble 9R-Wisc), Lipinski D-Ill), Reed (R-NY) and Pascrell (D-NJ), (T&I and W&M members), calling for an end to short term extensions and finding a revenue source to support a long term bill. The letter has been sent to all Republican and Democrat House Offices requesting their support.  The idea behind the letter is to get a majority of Rs and Ds to sign on. The hope is to send it to Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi when we get the appropriate number of signatures, hopefully sometime in early February, demonstrating strong support for this legislation. 

The pending FY 2015 funding bill contains a provision that would suspend part of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) hours-of-service limits on truckers. The provision suspends the requirement that truck drivers must include two 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. off-duty periods during a consecutive 34-hour off-duty period before their weekly driving hours would restart. The provision also removes the once-per-week limit of the use of the restart. These two restrictions were part of the FMCSA hours-of-service rule that went into effect on July 1, 2013. The reset requirements have been a problem for trucking companies, including construction companies since they were imposed. Sen. Collins (R-Maine) included the language in the year-end funding bill because she believes that the requirement has the perverse effect of putting more trucks on the road during heavy traffic periods. Â鶹ÊÓƵworked with a coalition of trucking interests in support of the Collins amendment.

Ask Your Reps to Sign Letter through Hardhats for Highways Although a gas tax increase in the lame duck was declared dead this week by Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), there was some positive news with four members of the House circulating a bipartisan letter in support of transportation funding.