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:.ACo: L -gisladw Affairs - Fact Sheets - ISTEA httpl/w Waco.org/policy/facts/istmfs.ht z' kzz oil All Legislative .t7r~aesGCfttM.uioe , .s~,.,, 5 r. :..a .:::L.. r.:..,...h N 000 00 NACo Fact Sheets Bulletin 0 Legislative Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act Priorities (ISTEA) 0' Fact Sheets i Issue: Highway and transit issues will receive a great deal of attention this year. Originally passed in 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) was authorized to provide $156 billion over a six year period for highways Advocacy and transit systems and provide for a more flexible program with an enhanced role Documents for local government officials. The program expired on September 30, 1997 and the process to reauthorize or extend ISTEA is in high gear. For a number of reasons, Bill Tracking mostly budgetary, Congress failed to reauthorize ISTEA in 1997. However, it did pass a six-month extension to keep funds flowing to local and state governments. Counties receive substantial funding for highways, bridges, and transit systems and are extremely interested in the outcome of the final outcome of the legislation. Lobbyists Background: Counties own 1.7 million miles of roads, 219,000 bridges and operate one-third of the nation's transit systems. While counties invest billions of Steering dollars to build and maintain these systems, there remains a substantial need for Committees federal funds to supplement the county investment in these systems. O~: American With the passage of ISTEA came the promise of more funding for county highways, ' County bridges and transit systems, and a program, which would be more flexible and responsive to the concerns of local governments. In general, this has been the case. Piatforri In metropolitan areas, substantial funding from the surface transportation program has flowed to counties through the metropolitan planning process. Local governments have been able to make more choices on how they want to spend that money. The transit program, little changed by ISTEA, has continued uninterrupted, particularly benefiting urban counties. Generally, funding for highways and transit has been increased over the life of ISTEA, though never to the authorized levels. For FY98, highways will receive $21.5 billion and transit $4.8 billion, substantial increases over the previous year. However, the spending of much of these funds is dependent on the passage of ISTEA. The House and Senate were well into the process of reauthorizing ISTEA in 1997. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee had approved a $216 billion six year extension of ISTEA (H.R. 2400 which generally continues the existing ISTEA structure and made some adjustments in the funding formulas. But opposition from the House leadership, who believed that the bill violated the balanced budget agreement, made it politically impossible to bring the bill to a vote before the full House. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Senate Banking Committee approved S. 1173 and S. 1271, providing six year extensions of ISTEA for the highway and transit programs respectively totaling $180 billion, a funding level consistent with the budget agreement. This bill reflects inputs from the supporters of the current program, as well as the STEP 21 and STARS proposals. Efforts to bring this legislation before the Senate for debate were stymied I of 3 05/01/98 15:17_