June 29–WASHINGTON — As usual, Congress waited until the eleventh hour to tackle big issues. But as result of legislation escaping today, an estimated 160,000 Missouri college students will avoid seeing interest rates on federal loans double and hundreds of millions of dollars in Missouri highway projects are assured funding well into 2014.
The bill also includes ongoing authorization for construction of the new Mississippi River bridge. It contains no specific funding levels because of a moratorium on earmarks, members said.
No Missourians or members of Congress from southern Illinois opposed the latest grand bargain between the Senate and House. President Barack Obama said he will sign the bill, which extends federal highway spending for 27 months, continue Stafford student loans at 3.4 percent and extend the federal flood insurance program for five years.
After months of wrangling over paying the tab, both sides of Capitol Hill gave ample majorities Friday despite a vote protest by 52 House Republicans over failure to include the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., asserted in a statement after Senate passage that she was disappointed that the pipeline project was left out. The oil pipeline has emerged as a flashpoint in Congress, with the Obama administration and many Democrats aligned with environmental advocates against the plan as presently drawn.
McCaskill’s statement expressed relief that “the politicians standing in the way of this compromise finally agreed that Missouri’s college students shouldn’t pay drastically more …”
The Stafford loan subsidy has no restrictions at present on how long students can take part. The compromise would limit access to six years for a four-year degree, which could amount to a $1 billion-plus savings over what was being spent.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., applauded the ability of Congress to work on a bipartisan basis to achieve what he called “certainty in order to jumpstart job creation.”
Blunt authored amendments especially valuable to rural Missouri authorizing repair of bridges that don’t typically qualify for federal aid and exempting farmers and rangers from government rules requiring commercial drivers licenses.
Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, calculated the benefits for Missouri projects at $900 million under the highway funding formula.
“This is the biggest jobs bill we will likely pass all year in Congress,” Carnahan said.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Rep. Jerry Costello of Belleville, both Democrats, both sat on the panel that hashed out differences between Senate and House versions of the legislation. By their count, the legislation assures $4.1 billion to Illinois for highway projects and another $1.5 billion for mass transit.
Lobbies including the American Highway Users Alliance and the Associated General Contractors of America praised the congressional action. But Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group argued that the legislation had become “a Christmas tree” relying on budget gimmicks and avoiding refroms in the bloated flood insurance program.
- Bill Lambrecht
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