Has Senate Solved Funding Shortfall for its Transportation Proposal?

Where are the details?

Senator Barbara Boxer’s proposed two-year bill to replace SAFETEA-LU needs $12 billion more than transportation revenues can provide.  Late last week Adam Snider of BNA’s Transportation Watch broke the story that Senator Baucus has figured out where that additional $12 billion will come from (paywall article).

But identifying a source, and getting everyone to agree to it, are two different things and it doesn’t appear the latter has occurred yet.  If and when that happens, House Republicans are certain to fight the Senate’s proposed higher funding level.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid later confirmed to Reuters that Baucus had found the needed revenue, but declined to provide details.  Reid also said that when the Senate returns in September it should quickly take up legislation to reauthorize federal highway and transit programs, along with the authority to collect the federal gas and diesel taxes that provide the bulk of revenue to pay for those programs. (“Senate should act on highway bill after break: Reid“)

Streetsblog tried to get more details and on Friday reported that

“A Finance Committee staffer informed us yesterday that they were “working on offset options and determining which can get the support needed to move forward” — a far cry from the certainty expressed by two sources below. The issue may simply be that while committee leadership has identified a source for the funds, it hasn’t gotten full agreement yet”

And EPW’s Ranking Republican Senator Inhofe isn’t on board yet, according to the Reuters article:

“Inhofe said the bill creates a $12 billion shortfall and “it is unwise to push an unfunded proposal to spend over $100 billion at the same time the nation is singularly focused on cutting trillions of dollars in spending.”