As the Georgia Department of Transportation watches and waits to see whether it will have to delay fall construction projects, your United States Congress is engaged in its latest deadline-driven staring contest.
The pattern is familiar, by now, and should result in a resolution somewhere at the edge of Friday’s deadline, when the highway trust fund runs out of money. The question is which slapdash solution will emerge: a five-month punt or a six-year bill with three years of funding.
And Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue is among the few swing senators who could determine the path.
The word on everyone’s lips is “certainty” for road-builders, which would seem to lend itself to a longer solution. But House Republicans are skeptical of the Senate’s approach and whether the upper chamber can even get a bill done in time.
The saga continues with rare Sunday votes on amendments that have nothing to do with highways: one to repeal Obamacare, a show vote that will fail to get the required 60 votes; and another to extend the expired Export-Import Bank, a cause favored by the business lobby and deplored by conservative activists.
The underlying bill remains in a perilous spot.
In a rare split from delegation mate Johnny Isakson, Perdue voted against a procedural motion Tuesday that failed because he did not want a six-year policy with three years of funding attached.
“This is another example of Washington’s chronic overspending problem,” he said.
The proposed $45 billion in new roads money comes from tapping the strategic petroleum reserve, tightening tax enforcement and changing dividend rules for big banks, among other policy tweaks. It gets policymakers no closer to solving the problem of how to fund road construction with the diminishing returns from the federal gas tax; it merely makes sure that another election will go by before anyone has to worry about it.
But a day later, Perdue flipped and supported the bill, and enough colleagues joined him that it barely cleared the first 60-vote hurdle. Perdue spokeswoman Megan Whittemore said the senator supported starting debate on the bill because he realized the only other choice was the House’s five-month measure, which would bring the same deadline madness to December.
Perdue remained opposed to the bill’s structure, so he offered an amendment to align its length with its funding. But it does not look like he’ll get a vote: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is locking down the amendment process, aside from Obamacare and the Export-Import Bank.
Whittemore said Perdue plans to oppose the Export-Import Bank amendment. If the controversial loan program is added, combined with the unchanged fiscal problem, it might be enough to lose his vote.
Meanwhile, the House is tapping its feet and looking at its watch. It passed a five-month extension July 15 and is eager to get on with August recess as soon as possible.
While McConnell is looking to protect his vulnerable incumbents in 2016, House GOP leaders have promised a large-scale tax code overhaul — which will supposedly include money to pay for a full six-year highway bill. They also don’t want a six-year Senate policy shoved down their throats.
Rep. Rob Woodall, a Lawrenceville Republican who serves on the Transportation Committee, said he would rather trust House committee chairmen than the Senate.
“If they are leading us down the wrong path, we’ll find out about it in five months and we’ll never have to trust them again,” Woodall said.
Pooler Republican freshman Rep. Buddy Carter is fretting over roads in his district and willing to consider anything that gets to a long-term solution.
So far in his young congressional career, the former state legislator has seen crisis-driven deadline deals on Department of Homeland Security funding and the Patriot Act. Such manufactured crises have become regular events in recent years, be it shutdown, cliff or ceiling.
“It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?” Carter said. “It’s different from what I’m used to, I will tell you that.”
Iran so far away
Republicans have almost universally smacked down President Barack Obama for the deal with Iran on its nuclear program, but Obama only needs enough friends in his own party to sustain a veto in order to cement the agreement.
Rep. David Scott, an Atlanta Democrat, will not be among them.
“It’s a good deal for Iran, for Russia, China and probably Hezbollah, but is it not, definitely not, a good deal for Israel or for the United States or our allies — especially Jordan and Saudi Arabia,” Scott told WABE-FM last week.
“Under this agreement … it allows for Iran to get a nuclear bomb. In essence, it sort of permits it to, within the agreement, without Iran even having to cheat at all.”
Vote of the week
The U.S. House passed a bill, 241-179, Thursday to block funds to "sanctuary cities" that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Yes: Reps. Rick Allen, R-Evans; Buddy Carter, R-Pooler; Doug Collins, R-Gainesville; Tom Graves, R-Ranger; Jody Hice, R-Monroe; Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville; Tom Price, R-Roswell; Austin Scott, R-Tifton; Lynn Westmoreland, R-Coweta County; Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville.
No: Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia; John Lewis, D-Atlanta; David Scott, D-Atlanta.
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