What does the Highway Trust Fund, flood insurance, the Keystone Pipeline and student loan interest have in common? Nothing really, but they all got thrown into the same bill, H.R.4348, passed by Congress on Friday, June 29.
It’s a strange way to do business, but at least some important things finally got done by this 112th Congress.
Interest on student loans would have doubled for millions had Congress not acted.
Highway funding for hundreds of projects on bridges and roadways in all 50 states are now assured for the next two years.
National flood insurance which would have expired in July has been extended.
Compromise on both sides of the aisle
But the Keystone Pipeline was not approved and the Environmental Protection Agency can continue to regulate coal ash waste from power plants. In a compromise, Republicans supporting the pipeline and restricting the EPA gave in on both issues.
For their part, Democrats had to accept a Republican proposal to allow states to avoid federal requirements that states spend highway funds on bike paths and beautification projects. Republicans said they wanted to allow states to spend the money where they thought it was most critical.
Time was running out
While the resulting law is a 600 page mishmash of unrelated issues, it is not surprising they all got in the same bill at the end. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY.) objected to what he considered a rush to vote on the measure in the Senate saying, “Nobody knows what we're voting on. In fact, things have been stuck in this bill last night that have nothing to do with any of these bills and they have been stuck in and we're just now discovering it.”
But Congress had been debating these issues in separate bills all year. It was only when time was running out, when student loan interest was about to double, when national flood insurance would have expired and when highway projects in states and all Congressional districts would have had to stop, that the effort to put them all in one package came about.
Costs are in dispute
The Congressional Budget Office says the new law will decrease the deficit by $16.3 billion over 10 years, despite estimates that implementing the legislation would lead to discretionary spending of $95.9 billion over the period 2013-2017. CBO says that among changes on revenues and taxes, the law will increase federal revenues by increasing premiums on flood insurance, and changes in the way some businesses treat their pension assets which will reduce tax deductions.
The Taxpayers for Common Sense says that the CBO estimates are in error and offers their own analysis that concludes the law will result in $13.7 billion in deficit spending.
- Joseph Hight
www.examiner.com/article/congress-passes-student-loans-highways-flood-aid-deficit-impact-disputed
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