WASHINGTON -- Despite the fact 2009 will usher in a new president and administration, with their own transportation priorities, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is gearing up to start work on the six-year highway and public transportation spending bill in the fall.

According to a committee staffer, Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the committee, wants to take the lead on the issue and plans to send up a reauthorization recommendation of perhaps as much as $500 billion as soon as the new administration is ready to receive it.

The next highway-public transportation spending bill will be called on to solve long-standing problems of deteriorating roadways and congestion in many of the nations urban areas, as well as take into account concerns for the environment.

Winning support for the bill will be challenging in the first instance because an allocation in the neighborhood of $500 billion would almost double the current spending authorization ($286 billion spread over six years).

In addition, the public has not forgotten the bad taste left by squabbling over earmarks in the last transportation bill, when legislators held out for special projects for their home states.

Jim Kolb, director of staffing for the subcommittee, describes transportation funding as similar to a block grant program rather than a national transportation system. This sentiment has been expressed by others, including the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. who, while admitting its usefulness in helping communities obtain funding for local projects, said the earmark process has been abused and must be controlled.

More spending advocated

The United States needs to spend $170 billion more each year on transportation infrastructure to avoid a crisis in the next decade, according to a new study.

That money could come from higher fuel taxes, private sector investment, tolls and congestion pricing, the Urban Land Institute said in a report.

The group expressed concern over the nation's aging and congested road and rail network.