SWFTI News

Bill puts I-75 in fast lane

07/29/2005

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U.S. House, Senate agree to authorize $81.1 million for I-75 expansion
By AMIE PARNES, parnesa@shns.com

WASHINGTON — Interstate 75 between Naples and Fort Myers was on the verge of getting widened — with the help of more than $80 million in federal funding — under a bill moving toward final congressional passage late Thursday.

In an unexpected and "thrilling" move, the U.S. House and Senate agreed late Thursday night to authorize $81.1 million for the long-awaited expansion of Interstate 75 in Southwest Florida — $9 million more than was originally expected, said the region's congressmen, Reps. Mario Diaz Balart and Connie Mack IV, in a joint statement.

The funding for the massive local highway project — part of a larger, $286.4 billion highway and mass transit bill — is in the House and Senate conference report, which sorts out the differences between the two chambers' versions.

The House was expected to formally approve the legislation by this morning and the Senate is expected to adopt the measure today, the Southwest Florida lawmakers said.

"This is a tremendous victory for Southwest Florida," Diaz-Balart said.

Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, and Mack, R-Fort Myers, who both sit on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said they pushed hard for the interstate widening, even inviting Transportation Chairman Don Young to Southwest Florida to experience the gridlock for himself.

"Funding for I-75 has always been a top priority for me, so I am thrilled that Congressman Mack and I were successful in getting this done," Diaz-Balart said. "This project is vital to everyone in Southwest Florida and is a big victory for the region."

Mack echoed Diaz-Balart's enthusiasm for the authorization.

"We're thrilled and honored," said Jeff Cohen, Mack's chief of staff. "This is a culmination of months of hard work in the House and the Senate."

Diaz-Balart and Mack said the authorization would not have happened without the assistance of Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, who helped "carry the weight" in the Senate.

The authorization — one of the largest amounts handed out for any single highway project in the country — will widen I-75 to six lanes between Daniels Parkway in Lee County and Golden Gate Parkway in Collier County.

Last year, the six-year transportation spending bill, which authorized $48 million for the expansion, got initial approval in the House but it stalled in a conference committee, where Senate and House negotiators failed to reach an agreement on the overall amount of spending and other details.

"This exciting moment would not have been possible without the widespread support of the entire Southwest Florida community," Mack said. "Your singular voice and tireless advocacy have made all the difference."

After years of delay and months of negotiations, Congress moved late Thursday to vote on a $286.4 billion highway and mass transit bill that would send lawmakers home for their summer vacations bearing big gifts of roads, bridges and jobs.

The House was to vote first on the 1,000-page package, although a last-minute dispute between committee chairmen over spending authority had lawmakers waiting in their offices late Thursday. A post-midnight vote on the six-year measure would be the House's last major act before recessing for the six-week summer break. The Senate was to follow suit today.

With the president's expected signature, passage of the act would end an almost two-year impasse in which Congress and the White House battled over the proper spending levels and states were at odds over how best to divide up the billions in federal highway money.

The bill would direct federal funds to thousands of projects requested by members, from $200 million for a bridge in Alaska named for the chairman of the House Transportation Committee to $2 million to pave roads on a South Dakota Indian reservation.

The nation has been without a new act since September 2003, when the 1998-2003 law, funded at $218 billion, expired. Since then, Congress has had to pass 11 temporary extensions to keep money flowing to the states for construction projects.

That delay has disrupted schedules for new projects and prevented the hiring of tens of thousands of construction workers.

The final funding level for the 2004-09 period is nearly $100 billion less than lawmakers and transportation officials have said is necessary to make real improvements in the nation's deteriorating, congested and unsafe roads and bridges.

But the White House has insisted that Congress show fiscal discipline, saying it cannot go along with unbridled spending at a time of large budget deficits and rising military costs.

Lawmakers said they were generally satisfied. The bill, said Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., who heads the minority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, "will make our nation's roads and bridges safer and less congested and create thousands of jobs from coast to coast."

"It's not going to solve the nation's congestion crisis, but it is a step in the right direction," said Ed Mortimer, director of transportation infrastructure at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Even before the final vote, lawmakers were boasting of projects they had won for their states or districts.

"I'm pleased to report that help is on the way for Colorado drivers," said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., saying the state would receive a 47 percent increase in federal highway funding, the highest increase of any state, to $2.5 billion.

South Dakota Democrat Sen. Tim Johnson and his Republican colleague, Sen. John Thune, said they "went in swinging for South Dakota and this transportation bill is truly a grand slam for our state." Johnson said that between the two of them they secured $225 million in "earmarks," or specific projects, for the state.

North Dakota received $70 million to stabilize and raise roads around Devils Lake, which is currently flooding, while Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., the head of the transportation panel in the Environment and Public Works Committee, secured $50 million for a new bridge crossing the Missouri River near Kansas City.

The bill also designates hundreds of new bus terminals, railways, bike trails, pedestrian walkways and parking lots. Mass transit receives more than 18 percent of the money, more than $50 billion, while $6 billion is set aside for transportation safety programs.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said he had succeeded in inserting a provision in the bill to reopen a closed runway at Malmstrom Air Force Base.

The Finance Committee also inserted several new tax provisions, raising $495 million over 10 years by funneling some taxes on kerosene used as diesel into the Highway Trust Fund, while exempting limousines over 6,000 pounds from the gas guzzler tax, at a cost of $46 million over 10 years. It also caps the 10 percent excise tax on fishing rods at $10.

The legislation guarantees that by 2008 every state will get back at least 92 percent of what it contributes through federal gas taxes to the Highway Trust Fund. The current minimum rate of return in 90.5 percent, and the demand of "donor" states for a more equitable division of the federal highway money has been one of the major sticking points in coming up with a compromise bill.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.