Below is TCS President Ryan Alexander's statement on the Senate EPW passage of the highway authorization bill today. Also, the WRDA conference report (can’t do the extra “r” for reform, so no WRRDA) was released today. Available here.

Statement of Taxpayers for Common Sense President Ms. Ryan Alexander on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passage of a highway bill, the first part of several committees’ efforts to enact a comprehensive transportation bill prior to MAP-21’s expiration September 30, 2014

“At a pace of nearly $14 billion a minute, the Committee quickly passed the $265 billion highway bill extension this morning. Taxpayers deserve more consideration and due diligence. While the committee floors the accelerator on six more years of spending at $51 billion per year, the Highway Trust Fund gas tank is only being refilled at a rate of $39 billion per year. There will not be enough gas tax to cover the distance – a roughly $100 billion shortfall is being ignored.

“It’s not the Committee’s job to figure out where the revenue is coming from – that’s the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction – but they’re still writing checks that cannot be cashed. The nation’s taxpayers have been bailing out the trust fund with revenues from the general treasury for years and it has to stop. It’s a microcosm of the whole federal budget process, lawmakers are spending beyond the nation’s means.

“Lawmakers exhibited a decided lack of creative thinking about meeting the nation’s very real infrastructure challenges and adopted an already failed business as usual approach. Reshuffling some programs from discretionary to mandatory funding and vice-versa is not reform. Chairwoman Boxer and Ranking Member Vitter should go back to the drawing board and come up with responsible policy that prioritizes repair, recognizes and helps address funding challenges, and will maintain and improve the nation’s infrastructure for the 21^st Century.”