The long-running Capitol Hill discussion about the need for infrastructure legislation has shifted to the House Ways and Means Committee, which would play the lead role in that chamber in devising ways to raise the large sums many say are needed to upgrade highways, bridges and other structures.
Infrastructure advocates were pleased to see Ways and Means enter the game with a lengthy March 6 hearing—the panel’s first in several years on the topic—but few, if any, new funding or financing ideas surfaced. Some witnesses called for hiking the federal gas tax; another advocated fees on vehicle miles.