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Flooded with proposals, Senate spells out spending strategy
Infrastructure/Budget, Infrastructure, Budget
Daily
10/17/2001
The contentious debate over what should go into an economic stimulus package
turned to the Senate Tuesday when a range of lawmakers spelled out their
prospective criteria for, among other things, critical infrastructure spending.
A range of ideas has been provided to the upper chamber, which plans to sort
through the proposals and have a plan ready for action by the end of October.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said he was pleased with the Bush
administration's strong criticism of the tax cut heavy House legislation that
passed out of the Ways and Means Committee late last Friday and is now set to
come to the floor as early as this week. "They took at least one giant step
backward in the House in the last few days," Daschle said of the lower chamber's
economic plan.
Daschle said the Senate has to go back to the drawing board to draft an
acceptable package, indicating as well that high level talks with Senate
Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max
Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are possible in
the days ahead.
Lott said "a lot of people are coming to town with requests" for boosted
spending and tax breaks. "We've got a lot of ideas to sort through," he said,
adding that the House version is much heavier on tax cuts than the version the
Senate is interested in. Increased spending looks like it will be the product of
a legislative compromise, several sources said, noting that neither the White
House nor GOP House leaders have said anything substantial about critical
infrastructure. House Democrats, meantime, are working on a pair of proposals;
one dealing with economic stimulus and the other, separately, on infrastructure,
according to a House Democratic leadership aide.
According to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Budget Committee, the
Senate is wrapping up its second week of a three-to-four-week plan to complete a
stimulus bill. Conrad's committee is holding a hearing Wednesday morning on the
economic package. To review the many proposals, Conrad explained that lawmakers
asked respective committees last week to address the many requests each is
receiving and report back by month's end with a list of short-term
possibilities.
Asked if critical infrastructure spending should even be included in the
package, Conrad said two vital criteria are that the federal funds must be spent
within six months and the projects should end within a year. "Most
infrastructure has a longer life," he said, indicating that many ideas will not
likely fit into the context of the stimulus package. Ideally, a project that
would be accepted is one that has already gone through both the design and
engineering phases, he said.
Fiscal conservative Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) maintained his position that he
does not think infrastructure spending fits well in an economic stimulus
package. While he said he was a proponent of building highways, Gramm dispelled
the argument made by infrastructure advocates that funding can immediately
stimulate the economy. Gramm, ranking member of the Banking, Housing and Urban
Affairs Committee, said he has not seen infrastructure spending help the country
out of a recession since World War II. "Let [infrastructure] stand on its own
feet," he said.
A number of lawmakers, including Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), Richard Durbin
(D-Ill.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Bob Smith (R-N.H.) all said serious
analysis should be done before specific spending is authorized. For example,
Graham said national security that reduces the risk of further terrorist attacks
is a primary consideration, adding that while long-term measures would be
beneficial, he is concerned that such proposals would extend beyond the scope
Congress is right now intending to address. Durbin pointed out that the new
Office of Homeland Defense and its director Tom Ridge should be called on for
its input. Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee,
said he had doubts that an economic stimulus package should include tens of
billions of dollars for infrastructure security as some lawmakers, most notably
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), have suggested.
Meantime, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) said
during a hearing Tuesday that he would introduce legislation "in the coming
weeks" to address security concerns at various federal agencies in the wake of
the terrorist attacks. He said he would base the bill on suggestions from the
Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and the Transportation Department.
Industry requests
In light of the economic stimulus package proposal, the Water Infrastructure
Network asked Congress recently for about $5 billion. According to Adam Krantz,
spokesperson for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, such funds
would go toward replacing aging water and wastewater pipes across the country,
an effort that would create more than 200,000 new jobs. WIN earlier this year
presented an analysis that said there will be a $23 billion gap each year for
the next 20 years to pay for aging water and wastewater infrastructure. Perhaps
drifting out of Conrad's criteria, Krantz said WIN's concerns would be addressed
through the economic stimulus package as its "initial vehicle."
The National Rural Water Association also called on Congress for funding
assistance via the stimulus package. NRWA said it would make sense to have the
Agriculture Department serve as the primary recipient of any water
infrastructure stimulus spending which was aimed solely at rural and small
communities. Mike Keegan, an NRWA analyst, said USDA is suited for the job
because it has a nearly $3 billion backlog of potential water projects waiting
for FY '02 funding. Because of that list, he said USDA would be able to get the
funds to projects in a more timely manner than EPA.
On the highway front, the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials recently told Congress it found a $14.2 billion price
tag for about 2,200 projects that would be capable of beginning in the next 30
to 90 days. Janet Oakley, director of policy and government relations at AASHTO,
said the projects are in the 47 states that responded to the organization's
recent survey. She said the projects would go beyond what any state is currently
planning to do.
Asked if the states or local governments should support such efforts, Oakley
said the federal government is in a better position right now to get the ball
rolling, noting that some state legislatures are not in session right now and
may not come back for as long as a year. As Congress has done previously, Oakley
said it could consider a temporary waiver in state or local government matching
funds in lieu of them being paid back over the next two years.
Amy Coggin, spokeswoman for the American Public Transportation Association, said
her organization has found about $10 billion to $12 billion worth of public
transit projects and another $5 billion in security needs that would go beyond
current measures. Coggin, however, said the timeframe spelled out by Conrad was
not something her organization had yet looked into.
Schedule: The Senate Budget Committee hearing will begin at 10 a.m., Thursday,
Oct. 17 in 562 Dirksen. -- Darren Samuelsohn