Mica Expects Transport Bill in January

The senior Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday he expects Congress will take up a comprehensive surface transportation bill in January, dimming any faint prospects the long-delaying spending plan will move this year.

Rep. John L. Mica. R-Fla., also told a roundtable of freight transportation stakeholders he is asking committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., to move forward with a bill that would ensure that the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund be used for its intended purpose.

Mica said Congress should consider a “robust and comprehensive” transportation bill that includes funding options. He said he expects the formula will include an expansion of public-private partnerships.

The committee last July drafted a bill that lays out a surface transportation spending plan for the next six years.

The bill never has been formally filed because the House Ways and Means Committee has not come up with at way to pay its $500 million price tag. At the same time, the Senate began its work on a comprehensive bill in January.

Mica also said he’d sent a letter to Oberstar asking that the committee mark up a bill, H.R. 4844, that would dedicate harbor maintenance funds for maintaining navigation channels and harbors. The bill was introduced in March.

Mica said the lack of maintenance dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers is causing transportation costs to rise, and few ports have the channel capacity to receive the new generation of larger vessels that carriers are bringing on line.

The letter notes the trust fund will have a $6 billion balance by the end of fiscal 2011.