BY MITCH MAC DONALD, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR outbound
The unmaking of John Mica
ON A FRIGID WASHINGTON AFTERNOON IN EARLY 2010,
Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) uttered what may have been one of the
funniest lines ever heard in the corridors of the U.S. Capitol.
Speaking to a group of state and local transportation officials,
Mica joked that the weather outside was so cold that “Even
Congress had its hands in its pockets.” The room exploded in
laughter.
Turn the clock forward 30 months or so. On a steamy afternoon
in early July, President Barack Obama signed into law a 27-month,
For instance, Mica had sought a six-year bill
that would provide $230 billion—not $109 bil-
lion—in funding for infrastructure programs.
That was virtually dead on arrival in his own
chamber, shot down by House colleagues who
deemed it too much to spend in a climate of fis-
cal austerity.
Mica wanted to include language in the bill
that, for the first time in 30 years, would raise the weight and size
limits of trucks operating on the nation’s interstate highway system. The proposed 17,000-pound increase in weight limits, which
would have been a boon to shippers, never made it. Instead,
Congress commissioned a multiyear study on the topic by the
Transportation Research Board, a deliberative (some might call it
slow-moving) body of academics, consultants, and engineers
who’ve rarely met a topical idea they couldn’t neuter into oblivion.
As for the language that would raise truck length limits, it actually
did pass Mica’s committee but later fell by the wayside.
As deliberations dragged on, House Speaker John Boehner (
R-Ohio) intervened several times to get his members on board, but
even that wasn’t enough. The House never did pass a bill; its conferees went to the table with their Senate counterparts with just an
extension of the existing transport legislation.
Contrast that with what happened in the Senate, where
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) bridged
their considerable political differences and
got their 98 colleagues behind a scaled-down
version that, while not perfect, seemed eminently livable. Boxer and Inhofe never
wavered. They were never undercut. In an
otherwise toxic climate, two ideological
opposites came together and got the job
done. In the end, the bill that became law
was, for all intents and purposes, the Senate’s
handiwork.
Mica’s supporters have lauded him for compromising on the legislation’s size and financial scope in order to get a
bill to the president’s desk.
They also applauded him for
his willingness to take the
controversial Keystone XL
pipeline project off the table
to clear the way for the bill’s
passage.
Those points are well
taken. Knowing when to
“fold ’em” is one of the keys
to effective governance. One
can argue that Mica acceded
to reality and acted for the
greater good of the country,
a noble endeavor for any lawmaker and a
quality in short supply in Washington right
now.
Still, Mica had a wish list, and he had the
power to pull from it. From where we sit,
though, he couldn’t get it done.
There will be another reauthorization cycle
in September 2014. But Mica is restrained by
the House’s term limits from retaining the
chairman’s post. He may never have this
chance again. In D.C., that’s the way it sometimes goes.
