In a statement issued on Oct. 22, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) indicated that the GOP will use programs such as the fledgling 2012 highway funding bill to address what he characterized as “inefficient, ineffective, and incompetent federal agencies along with failed government policies have real world consequences.”
The 2012 Highway Funding Bill was set to expire in calendar 2014 but was offered temporary respiration through May 2015. It is expected that funding for transportation infrastructure granting will dry up by early summer if Congressional members cannot come to terms on a long-term solution to funding.
Despite his insistence that “restoring economic growth and job creation will be the central policy goal of the next Congress and restoring competence in government will be part of that effort,” McCarthy’s statement seemed to lack a distinct connection between precisely how issues such as highway funding will fall in line with the GOP’s planned overhaul of government agencies.
Skeptics see the statement as little more than a mid-term election pledge, despite what McCarthy said was real bipartisan progress exemplified in the highway funding extension passed this past May. Neither side has, to date, been able to codify this progress into a sustainable solution.
