Obama administration could influence next transpo bill

The Obama administration may be gearing up to write its own version of the next 6-year transportation bill. At the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, Beth Osborne, the Obama team’s deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy, said that Congress has asked the U.S. DOT “to craft its own version of a transportation reauthorization bill.”

The challenge will be to come up with a long-term funding formula, and a new element at play is the effort to cut transportation emissions and the EPA’s expanded role in terms of enforcement. With the next long-term transportation bill, states are insisting on a guaranteed rate of return from their gas-tax revenue based on an equity argument that, according to Streetsblog Capitol Hill, says the more energy-efficient you are, the less gas you use and the less federal funding you should get.”

U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood spent most of this past summer convincing lawmakers to hold off on transportation funding discussions until 2011, but if the Obama administration takes on a more active role many believe a long-term funding solution might be discovered before then.