Transportation. You may have thoughts on funding, you may have thoughts on specific road projects or mass transit, or other things that would better the way we get around. Your thoughts on the best way to improve public transcription, for democrats 2027488000 republicans 2027488001 and for independents call 2027488002 or tweet cspanwj or send us email journal cspan. Org. Transcription goes to funding and the hill newspaper here in washington, d. C. Has a look at looking to the i. R. S. To fund projects. Bernie writes to push taxes out of outstanding mortgages in states comes at a time when republicans are looking to seek the i. R. S. Budget, a dynamic thats not lost on the agencys top officials. The i. R. S. Commissioner told reporters thursday the agency would implement whatever law Congress Throws its way just as it did with the Affordable Care act but suggested implementing tax changes from the highway bill wouldnt come out without some pain and after the agency absorbed more than 1 billion in budget cuts the last five years, quote, the problem with declining resource is the only place money can come from is taxpayer services, Information Technology and security, noting the i. R. S. s top priority is making sure the annual Filing Season runs smoothly and well have to make tough choices and the republicans argued the i. R. S. Is wasteful with the funding and it goes to say i think they make poor use of the revenue they have and they collect more revenue legitimately from taxpayers who legally owe it. The story deals with the i. R. S. And transportation funding. The Senate Meeting at 2 00 today to discuss transportation funding, especially the funding of the highway transportation fund. If you want to give your thoughts on the best way to improve Public Transportation, whether it be on actual road projects or funding issues or whatever you want to bring to the table, 2024748000 for democrats and 2027488001 for republicans and independents, 2027488002. Joining us on the phone jody schneider, a team leader for the publication. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host tell us what the senate plans to do. Whats at stake here about the senates deliberation on the highway bill . Guest today theyll be voting on two different amendments. Advancing two different amendments. One would basically be a repeal of obamacare and the other one would be to add an extension of the Exportimport Bank which expired the end of june. These are not amendments, obviously, that have a lot to do with the transportation bill itself but they are amendments to the bill. And then they will go back to the actual highway bill, which as you have explained expires the authorization for highway funding expires after this friday so theres a lot of pressure to move forward this week. Host whats the price tag on this bill . Guest and the real issue here in congress now is that the bills there are two very different bills in each chamber. The senates plan is a threeyear plan so its an ambitious plan that looks at funding highways over that period. The house plan is a much less ambitious plan. Its only 8. 1 billion and it goes through just december 18 of this year and will be the real issue. The senate is going to send over to the house if they pass their bill, a much bigger plan. The house has already said they dont want that plan and with the pressure to do something by friday one would think they would have to end up with a much more shortterm proposal if they are going to be able to do that before that real deadline after friday. Host do the approach on these plans both depend on the gas tax for funding . Guest no, the gas tax has been a nonstarter so each chamber had to find money through different means. The house mostly tightens Tax Compliance rules as you noted in your opening statement. Thats the way theyre getting the money. The senate does a number of things to try to get money. Some of them have opposition. One of them that has been very hotly opposed by the Banking Industry and by banking chairman dick shelby of alabama would basically reduce dividends to member banks from the federal reserve. It would basically cut the 6 dividend pay by the fed member banks. So theres a lot of opposition to that. So thats one of the reason the house says, house members and house leaders said the senate bill is a nonstarter in their chamber even as it comes down to the wire here. Host when you say come down to the wire talk about that july deadline. What happens if theres no agreement on funding after july 31 . Guest theres some real effects. The transportation secretary on friday, anthony fox, told reporters if the funding expires it could trigger as many as 4,000 layoffs at the Transportation Department, including employees of the federal highway administration, the national highway Transportation Traffic Safety Administration and basically he said that how the u. S. Will have to allocate the funding as the balance runs low would be to the states, would be based on an allocation formula until it runs out of money, as the transportation secretary told reporters its definitely not a small impact. So theres very real world impacts if this doesnt get done and the two chambers are pretty far apart right now. Host so bringing it down to the ground level so to speak, current road projects would have to be put on halt and would be affected and future road projects definitely would be affected . Guest future projects definitely would be affected and the money is not there and the uncertainty is making it hard for transportation planners to do what they need to do in terms of plan projects. In terms of existing projects, it depends, the states some of these projects will dry up right away, some will go on a little longer but various states have already started sounding the alarm bell that they could have to stop important projects in their states. So this is something that would play out, obviously, if the funding were to expire. Congress is very well aware of this, and as weve seen in previous debates like this, often ends up with what we call a shortterm patch to kind of buy some time. But as weve said right now the chamber doesnt have the same plan. So whatever shortterm patch theyd agree on would probably come later in the week. Host whats the likelihood july 31 will come without a plan in place . Guest i think its relatively low. I think it will come down to, as i said, later in the week. But both the house and senate are feeling pressure obviously, to do something and this will be a big subject in congress this week and the fact that the senate is coming in on a sunday, which is unusual for them, shows they feel they need to move along on this. The house is scheduled to start its recess on friday, its summer recess, so again they know its time as well. Host Jodi Schneider with Bloomberg News talking about the Senate Meeting today and discussions about the transportation. Ms. Schneider, thanks for your time. Guest thank you. Host again, with that in mind, your thoughts on the best way to improve Public Transportation. You heard our guest on the phone talking about funding issues talking about how it might affect the current road projects. Theres mass transit to consider. You may have thoughts on that and if you want to share them with us, 2027488000 for democrats, for republicans 2027488001 and for independents 2027488002 and reach us on twitter and facebook as well. Lets start with randy in clear water, florida, independent line. Randy, good morning. What are your thoughts on improving Public Transportation . Caller yes, good morning. I was thinking that, you know, of course a longterm bill like four to six years, but, you know all the billions that have been wasted over all these years, the government should be accountable to the people, and also i wanted to say, you know, that the president s trillion dollar stimulus in his first year, you know, i thought when he was in front of reporters and stuff and said that, well, i guess there werent so many shovelready jobs and everybody laughed about it i thought that was horrible. Host ok, randy. We go to charles, white plains, Maryland Democrats line, your thoughts on improving Public Transportation. Hi, charles. Caller good morning good morning, america and the people of america. I think the best way would be to take it back on what many of the governors have done and that is to raise the highway tax. I live in the area which is adjacent to washington, d. C. , and i got to tell you, the roads are terrible going in and out of washington, d. C. Past the National Harbor and to 395 and so forth. Its just horrendous. And it just seems to me that the republicans are always out to cook the books and do things politically rather than help the nation to build the infrastructure, to create jobs, to help to uplift the whole nation. Its terrible. Its a terrible thing when you have to deal with a party that all they know about is obstruction and twisting and doing things that are not conducive to help the nation. Host brian is up next, terre haute, indiana independent line. Hi, brian. Caller hi pedro. Thanks for taking my call. Host youre on. Go ahead. Caller in my opinion light rail would be the best way to improve the highway system. Host why do you think light rail will do . Do you think it alleviates traffic, are there other benefits as well . Caller yeah, in my opinion it will alleviate traffic and create jobs in the construction also the various hubs i know that the detractors might say it takes money away from traditional forms of transportation but i think the population has grown so much that we have to have something to compensate if we dont start to kind of subsidize the traditional highway system, its just going to continue to get into increased disrepair. Host does indiana use some type of light rail . Caller i am fairly positive it does not. Host brian in indiana. Again, some thoughts in improving Public Transportation and the best ways to do that in your opinion 2027488000 for democrats and 8001 for republicans and 8002 for independents. The state of oregon started a project this month on how to improve its highway system and it is implementing a cost to drivers saying that starting this month, oregon drivers have the obligation to pay by the mile for road usage instead of how much gas they purchase. Orgo as the program is known launched july 1 with the goal of enrolling 5,000 participants to test three private partnerships set up by a trial run. The scheme is designed to shift road tax revenues from a gasoline based structure to what reporters believe is a more fair purchase given the increasing number of hybrid vehicles, under the scheme drivers will pay 1. 5 driven in the state and receive credit for the 30 cents a gallon paid at the pump as the state gas tax. Oregon and other states know that the gas tax drivers pay at the pump isnt cutting it anymore according to the Oregon Department transportation director matt garrett. Thats one of the ways states are using different ways to fund their transportation projects. You heard our guests talk about the issues at the federal level. Your thoughts welcomed on the best way to improve Public Transportation. Frank is in seattle, washington. Frank on our democrats line. Hello. Caller hi how are you doing . Yeah, i dont know how the mayor of seattle and governor inslee of my state have missed the fact that we are seattle, it would be easy seattle, los angeles, chicago got together the individual city transportation structure, got together, put them in the room and find out what is the whats missing with the rest of the smaller cities in our country. My transportation personally is subsidized on a daily basis. I have a card that says i get on a bus and pay a little less fare and im thinking well, the majority of the people the average rider of Public Transportation is not has a lot more input than i think the politicians realize. I just think the best way would be to take, you know, the bigger cities intelligence and give it to the smaller cities. Host frank, thank you. The federal highway administration, when it comes to traffic volume, may 2015, they report that travel on all roads and streets change by. 27 , that it was an increase from may 2015 as compared with may 2014. Travel for the month is estimated to be 275. 1 billion miles. For 26 there is expected a 3. 4 increase and breaks out the estimated miles of travel by region in a map showing the south atlantic showing the most increases followed by the west and south gulf as its known and the northeast actually North Central area showing those increases as well. Thats a breakdown of travel and how its increased. Were asking you on how to improve Public Transportation. Youve heard some thoughts this morning, light rail being one of them, funding being some other issues. You can make your thoughts known on the lines on the screen. Robert in newport news, virginia, democrats line. Hi. Caller hi. Id just like to say we should pass the president s job bill and i believe put in place the 10 most important things that we can do in america to improve the economy. I think thats the first and foremost thing we should do. And that should be the democrats and republicans. Host and the jobs bill is important why . Caller well, that was the first thing we brought into place when we brought obama into office, and we should make sure that that gets done because that puts many more people back to work and it creates something for this country to look forward to, a path. And thats where we dont have a path or direction that we need to follow. And were just going around in circles right now. Host stan is from connecticut. Tan, stan, thanks for calling. Go ahead. Caller i have a good idea, instead of raising the gas tax, how about the road tax we got now for the infrastructure there instead of giving it away to food stamps and every other thing, use the gas tax we got now for the roads and bridges and stuff instead of using it for Something Else. Host so your state is the gas tax used for other purposes than roads and infrastructure . Caller yes, i think it is. Any extra money they get they always use it for Something Else but what its supposed to be for. Host whats the condition of roads like there in connecticut . Caller in my area its pretty good. Host whats your area like, is it more urban or rural, tell us about it. Caller rural. Host joshua is up next from hinesville, georgia, democrats line. Caller hi, thank you for taking my call. What i wanted to say was this is just a painful thing we have to do. Everyone has to understand, we need to we need to improve our infrastructure as far as transportation goes, not only will it improve the public but business as well. And this was last done back in the 1950s with eisenhower and theres no reason why it should not be done today. I mean it wont take an increase in taxes but as of right now we have bridges falling apart on top of people that they build tensions for the bridges so they dont hit people. We need to fix the bigger pill and fix the problem. Host where do we start . Caller across the Board National tax raise not much but a tiny bit to start paying for serious infrastructure reform. Besides that, then we need to hire obviously, a lot of people, which i know its not such an issue now but marking back to obamas 2008 campaign that would help with low job rates now thats no longer such an issue. And then just start working our way from there. Host give us a sense of what transportation is like there where you live in georgia. Caller honestly, im a member of the military so ive been around quite a bit and the roads in georgia are absolutely horrible. I mean theres no other way to describe it, theyre bumpy its just bad for transportation in general. Georgia in particular needs to increase their funding for highway maintenance. Host youve been around you said a bit where are the best roads youve encountered . Caller honestly, im originally from wisconsin and growing up i remember their roads being better than everyone else that ive been to. However, theyre constantly under maintenance or repair, at least in the green bay area where im from. It would be nice to just tear that overall and get it knocked out instead of handling it piecemeal like im used to seeing. Host joshua from georgia, lets hear from earl from canton, georgia, democrats line. Caller how are you doing . Host im well thank you. Caller the reason im calling is because here in georgia they have a problem with the rail. People dont want to ride dont know who theyre riding with and right now are in the process of building 50 miles of overpasses and lanes, toll lanes, for what we call lexus lanes for people that have money to get home faster, im assuming, but its about it. Its just like everything else. Im glad im retired because i dont have to drive to atlanta or even ride to atlanta anymore unless i choose to. Host for those lexus lanes you described them whats the cost like to ride them . Caller i dont know, theyre not really complete. I think theyre supposed to be complete by the end of this year. There have been bridges over the existing highways, 85 and i75. And i75 and i575. Host if somebody wants to ride them they pay and go faster, thats the idea . Caller they made a toll lane out on 85 and just used the shoulder of the road which made traffic even worse. So thats what i see in the news. Im retired so i dont go anywhere much other than watch the news now. Host lets hear from ron in wilton, iowa, on this idea of the best way to improve Public Transportation. Thanks for calling. Caller i live in a rural state. Iowa. No cities, lots of small towns and a huge farming population. Even though agribusiness is only 25 of the economy. Here in this and the reason im calling is i know what they want to do is raise the tax on fuel. And what ive seen in this state is the governor raised the taxes on fuel but the farmers pay nothing on the roads. They pay no tax on what they consume. Now, this is just one example i know it doesnt apply to the entire United States