House votes to keep highway spending level, ignores warnings

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Thursday to continue transportation programs for six years with no significant increase in spending, despite warnings from the White House and statehouses across the country that the nation's roads, bridges and transit systems are falling apart.

State officials say they find it increasingly difficult to plan major construction projects because they can't always be sure federal aid will be available.

Since 2008, Congress has kept the federal Highway Trust Fund teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, unwilling to raise the federal 18.4 cents-a-gallon gasoline and 24.4-cent diesel taxes.

"Republicans, Democrats, Americans care about our infrastructure and want to get to work without delays, want to get products to market, and want to get the raw materials to the factories that keep us competitive in this world," Shuster said.

The measure was the first major bill on the House floor since Rep. Paul Ryan became speaker, and it reflected the Wisconsin Republican's promise to give rank-and-file lawmakers greater clout in shaping legislation — something they complained they lacked under Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who resigned under fire last week.

[...] scores of other amendments were blocked from consideration by GOP leaders, including a proposal by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., to raise the gas tax, and another by Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., to tax profits U.S. corporations park overseas and use that tax to pay for transportation programs.

Another assumes $5 billion can be raised by having the IRS use private debt collectors to recover back taxes, something that in the past has cost the government more than it raised.