Barron’s editorial page editor pans the new federal transportation spending law

Thomas Donlan of Barron’s has probed the new federal transportation funding law. He doesn’t like what he sees.

It weighs in at $305 billion and 1,300 pages—a mighty barrel of pork.

The transportation measure—the first long-term bill in a decade—has been hailed as many things, not least as a sign that Congress can perform its basic functions after years of partisan gridlock. Lawmakers had to pass 36 temporary extensions of the old law to get to the new one.

The successful bill went through weeks of negotiation in the Senate and dozens of votes on amendments in the House. It was chewed over in committees and in floor debates. A House-Senate conference created the final text, and it passed by 83-16 in the Senate and by 359-65 in the House.

Dubbed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, it will do no such thing. Spending won’t keep up with the deterioration of the nation’s transportation infrastructure, and revenues won’t support the spending that the FAST Act does legislate.

It would be more of a legislative milestone if it were not such a fiscal millstone.

Of the new law’s $305 billion, only $235 billion will be covered by federal motor-fuels taxes. Congress hasn’t raised those taxes—most of which are the equivalent of highway user fees—in more than 20 years, but of course it still wants to spend. …

… There are lots of other tidbits and outrages packed into the new law. At the top of many lists is the resurrection of the Export-Import Bank. This little subsidy mill became a bête noire for Tea Party Republicans, but it benefited too many business interests to stay dead for long.

The new law has other policy errors—besides perpetuating a federal transportation department at all. These include continuation of a Buy America requirement in purchases of transit vehicles, a package of subsidies promoting dense development near transit hubs, expansion of the Department of Transportation’s financial aid to state and local governments for planning and permitting, and subsidies for infrastructure that benefit movement of freight by truck and rail companies supposedly in the private sector.