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August 29, 2011 4:45 AM, EDT

By Michele Fuetsch, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the Aug. 29 print edition of Transport Topics.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will support a temporary extension of the nation’s current transportation plan when Congress returns to session next month, an aide said.

“While there are no details at this point, as the committee continues work to complete a six-year surface transportation reauthorization, it will also support an extension of expiring authority as necessary,” Mica spokesman Justin Harclerode told Transport Topics on Aug. 24.

The current transportation law expired in 2009, but Congress has approved several temporary extensions, which have to be agreed upon by the House and Senate and signed by President Obama.

The current extension expires Sept. 30. Without another extension, the federal government will not be able to collect the 18.4-cent gas tax nor the 24.4-cent diesel tax that support the nation’s transportation system.

In addition, the government will not be authorized to spend money��on transportation.

The situation is “dire,” officials said at an Aug. 23 press conference held in Louisville, Ky., organized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Time is critical because Congress will only be in session 11 days during September, they said.

“Projects that are currently under construction may need to be shut down because we will not be able to be reimbursed,” said AASHTO president Susan Martinovich, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Jobs will be lost, safety compromised and states left open to lawsuit by contractors if the states default on payments, Martinovich and other officials said.

AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley said that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told AASHTO on Aug. 18 that she will hold a markup Sept. 8 on a bill to temporarily extend the existing law for four months.

EPW committee staff members would not confirm whether a markup is scheduled for Sept. 8, but one staffer said that the committee�� “will hold a markup of an extension at the earliest opportunity in September” and that “the extension will be long enough to complete work on the two-year bill.”

Both Boxer and Mica have unveiled outlines of long-term reauthorization bills that each promised to introduce but, thus far, have not. (7-11, p. 1).

In February, President Obama also unveiled a reauthorization blueprint, which called for $556 billion in spending. In addition, the White House has said the president will unveil an infrastructure jobs program in September.��

Mica is seeking a six-year reauthorization and Boxer a two-year reauthorization with a spending level of $109 billion.

Mica’s $230-billion proposal has stirred intense opposition from transportation advocates, labor groups and Democrats in Congress because the plan slashes current spending by at least 30% during the coming six years.

Mica said he is constrained by a rule passed early this year by the House Republican majority that transportation spending cannot exceed revenue generated for the Highway Trust Fund by fuel and other levies such as those on the sale of truck tires (7-11, p. 1).

State and labor officials have said the Mica spending levels could cost as many as 500,000 jobs and imperil the nation’s highway system, which they said is already underfunded.

Because the federal role in the nation’s transportation system is largely to reimburse states, a significant funding cut and “the failure to pass a reauthorization puts nearly everything we do at risk,” said Mike Hancock, Kentucky’s transportation secretary and president of the Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.