Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Seems like we were here just two years ago.

Back in 2007, when the Legislature and TxDOT were fighting over the main transportation bill of the session, a letter arrived from federal highway regulators at a key point late in the session saying that what lawmakers had in mind might violate federal law. It has happened again.

Janice Weingart Brown, the Austin-based division director of the Federal Highway Administration, this afternoon sent TxDOT a letter saying that House Bill 300 “causes FHWA great concern as it appears to be inconsistent with core concepts of our program.”

This comes on the heels of a fiery meeting this morning of the House Transportation Committee where chairman Rep. Joe Pickett and other committee members accused TxDOT of “disrespecting” the House and wrongly intimating that HB 300, the Texas sunset bill, might jeopardize federal funds. The letter from Brown says it does.

Brown early on in the four-page letter offers a caveat.

“A State is free to enact any legislation that it believes best addresses its own transportation needs and goals,” she writes. “We want to assure the State of Texas and TxDOT that FHWA has no desire or intent to interfere with the Texas legislative process.”

But the letter will certainly be a factor in the session’s final two weeks.

Brown’s critique knocks the House version of HB 300 for a number of purported sins of both omission and commission.

“Our conclusion is that if the proposed legislation passes in its current form, the State of Texas would be unable to meet the requirements of 23 USC Section 302,” the letter says, referring to a section of federal transportation law.

HB 300, the letter says, talks about “depositing” federal funds in the accounts of metropolitan planning organizations, something that Brown says federal law does not authorize. Nor does it allow local planning organizations to loan one another money, as HB 300 contemplates, she writes. HB 300 fails to include certain transit or state officials on the boards of metropolitan planning organizations, the letter says. And it delegates environmental studies to local toll authorities, something federal law doesn’t allow according to the letter.

Significantly, however, Brown does not mention the specific complaint that TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz this morning discussed (to understate the tone of the exchange) with the House Transportation Committee. TxDOT officials have argued that language in HB 300 stipulating that TxDOT dispense by formula 90 percent or more of its money directly to local planning organizations, leaving decisions about how to spend it up to them, violates federal law.

Brown did not discuss that issue.

Your move, Mr. Pickett.