The 1 Glaring Question in Every Congressional Hearing on Infrastructure

By MSGI Policy Analyst Andrew Lautz

There were no less than three hearings on Capitol Hill last week concerning the great white whale of this era, for Congress and the White House: an infrastructure bill. These were not the first hearings of the 116th Congress on infrastructure either. Numerous Committees have spent hours discussing how to invest the trillions of dollars needed to update the nation’s roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels. 

This week’s hearings were held by Committees with different focus areas, underscoring just how many aspects of the American economy would be impacted by an infrastructure package:

1. The House Small Business Committee held a hearing on how to include small businesses and contractors in an infrastructure bill
2. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee considered how to balance the need for fast permitting of Federal projects with the need to protect the environment
3. It was the House Ways and Means Committee, though, that pondered the central question hanging over these and all other infrastructure hearings: how to pay for it?

There is still quite a gap between Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders over just how to pay for an infrastructure bill that could cost over $1 trillion, without putting more debt on the nation’s credit card.

Republicans, who control the Senate and White House, are wary of proposals to increase the Federal gas tax. House Transportation Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) is proposing a new kind of tax, on Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT). Graves has yet to get his party on board, though, and there are privacy concerns about how to actually track and collect a VMT tax.

Some prominent Democrats, like House Transportation Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR), are behind a gas tax hike, but he doesn’t have consensus in his party either. Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) has not committed to any one idea to raise money for an infrastructure bill, but where he falls on the issue could end up being a major signal to other House Democrats.

It seems that President Trump, the Republican-led Senate, and the Democratic-led House all agree that infrastructure spending is a necessity, not an option, for the 116th Congress. Until a consensus develops on how to pay for infrastructure, though, there will be more questions about what emerges from this Congress than answers.