It’s been a while, and like the old Rip Van Winkle of lore, I woke from the relative quiet of the holidays with a start, looked around me, and realized a lot had changed between December of 2011 and January of 2012.  So with the myriad issues that have been keeping me away from communicating them with our loyal readership, I think it best if we just jump right into the reinvigorated energy surrounding Capitol Hill these days – energy that’s not just dedicated to the pace of the Republican primary events.

Foremost amongst the surprises of the New Year was the Congressional intent to start pushing a surface transportation reauthorization prior to the most recent extension expiring on March 31^st.  For those of you doing a double take, you are not alone.  When the news reached AAMVA of this aggressive timeframe, I thought it likely to be political posturing from just one chamber of Congress, who often uses such tactics to point the finger at the other chamber when divided by party control – but this is apparently not the case at all.  Both chambers have jumped towards tackling some substantive measure prior to the President’s Day recess.  In my opinion, this action is likely spurred by the horrendous public polling figures on the general acceptance of our representative government’s work on Capitol Hill.  In an effort to retain their jobs, and to ensure the public they are not “broken” as many pundits have recently opined, the Congress returned to the transportation reauthorization measure as something that was non-divisive and that could be leveraged as a necessary piece of legislation that carries the all-important association of “creating jobs” prior to elections.  The two measures, as noted in previous blogs on the subject, had been so far apart in every aspect that the thought of negotiation on such wide-ranging bills seemed implausible and unrealistic.  Welcome to the New Year, and the new push to get things done.  In the past weeks, the House has outlined a timeframe and begun drafting measures that could, theoretically, start building the foundation for a true measure to work its way through both chambers.  At this point, those measures are being closely guarded by Congressional staff, and are not available to the public by general download (even the hard copies being circulated on the Hill are subject to watermarking and other security measures.)  That being said, there are essentially two very big obstacles to address in beginning the collaborative process.  Both chambers must agree on the timeframe of the bill (everything from 2 years in the Senate to 6 in the House had previously been on the table) and determine a viable funding mechanism for the bill to ensure the programs outlaid receive the funding they need.  Most notably on this subject is the ensured solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.  Many experts feel that numbers soon to be released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will help legislators look at just how much additional revenue must be produced in order to keep our nation’s safety and infrastructure programs running smoothly – and those numbers outlining just how threadbare the Trust Fund remains are expected in the coming week.  These are not going to be easy arguments to placate in just a few months.  They strike at the heart of both parties, with the House recommending a tie-in between expanded oil and gas drilling in federal waters and public lands with a funding mechanism that runs contrary to traditional Democratic environmental and green energy concerns.  However, that being said, there is much to take from the consensual agreement that the Congress must pass an infrastructure and highway safety measure.  This general agreement, and the agreement that it must be done soon has not been a hallmark of this Congress.  If they actually both publicly agree on moving an issue – it is very likely that it will move.  So in the coming weeks, be prepared to see a glut of information on its progress and comparison as it fans its way through Congress like a violent forest fire.  While it’s easy to hope for its passage, even something as seemingly non-divisive as the surface transportation reauthorization will carry hard-line party ideals to the brink and make for a very interesting and compressed few weeks on Capitol Hill.