WASHINGTON - Competing transportation and housing funding bills were derailed Thursday as Senate Republicans blocked a vote on legislation they viewed as too costly while House GOP leaders pulled a far leaner package that they said couldn't pass "This isn't working," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., after a day in which he says the American people were...
WASHINGTON - Competing transportation and housing funding bills were derailed Thursday as Senate Republicans blocked a vote on legislation they viewed as too costly while House GOP leaders pulled a far leaner package that they said couldn't pass
"This isn't working," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., after a day in which he says the American people were given new evidence of congressional dysfunction.
The simultaneous demise of the transportation and housing bills in both chambers came just as Congress is preparing to begin a five-week summer recess. It will leave them nine legislative days when they return to try and resolve more than a dozen spending bills and a possible vote on whether to extend the debt limit.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said the House drafted bill didn't have enough votes to pass, as some Republicans resisted the large discretionary cuts required by sequestration and a GOP-passed budget. The GOP needed to provide all the votes for the bill because minority Democrats were expected to vote unanimously against the legislation.
Rogers said the only way to stop the gridlock would be a new negotiated budget deal bringing together the Obama White House and the Democratic majority in the Senate. Republicans have been resisting new negotiations on a "grand deal" to lower the deficit and reform taxes until the president promised not to seek any additional tax revenue - something he and Democrats have refused.
But the lack of a deal is making a mockery of the congressional appropriations process, members of both parties say.
"The House, Senate and White House must come together as soon as possible on a comprehensive compromise that repeals sequestration, takes the nation off this lurching path from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, reduces our deficits and debt, and provides a realistic topline discretionary spending level to fund the government in a responsible -- and attainable -- way," Rogers said.
Republicans have insisted that automatic cuts in sequestration be adjusted to eliminate almost all the reductions for the Department of Defense. The modifications left discretionary funding for other programs, including transportation and housing, facing substantial cuts.
For example, in the GOP's transportation and housing bill, community development block grants would be cut by 45 percent. The Senate bill would have left the program pretty much in tact.
Last year, the program provided $22.3 million to New Orleans, and $1.8 million to Jefferson Parish. If the House bill were adopted, those allotments would be trimmed by about 45 percent.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that all but one Republican refused to stop a filibuster because the Democratic majority isn't recognizing the lower spending levels required to meet previously negotiated budget deals, including sequestration - the automatic spending cuts that took effect when the White House and congressional Republicans couldn't reach a budget deal. The cloture motion needed 60 votes, but could only muster 54 in the 100-seat Senate.
"Voting for appropriations legislation that blatantly violates budget reforms already agreed to by both parties moved our country in exactly, exactly, the wrong direction," McConnell said.,
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the bill was drafted with strong Republican input and approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee with six GOP votes.
"I am extremely disappointed that the Senate Republican leadership chose gridlock over jobs and obstruction over economic growth. Investing in jobs, infrastructure, and broad-based economic growth shouldn't be a partisan issue," Murray said. "But by filibustering this bill, Republicans are threatening critical infrastructure and housing investments that workers, families, and communities across the country are counting on.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., voted against bringing the transportation bill to a vote. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-la, missed the vote to attend the New Orleans funeral of former Rep. Lindy Boggs, 97.
The House transportation and housing bill funds federal-aid highway programs at the levels prescribed by last year's highway authorization law and increases funding for highway, truck and rail safety. The measure reduces aviation, mass transit and housing programs, cutting Amtrak by 33 percent.
The Senate bill provides $106.7 billion for housing and transportation, averting most of the House cuts, including in the mass transit program that funds the New Orleans Regional Transit Agency.
The House bill would have allotted $97.6 billion