Just a day before current funding was set to expire, the Senate on Oct. 28 approved by voice vote the short highway-bill extension that had been passed by the House a day earlier.
Playing beat the clock, the House of Representatives today approved by voice vote a three-week extension of transportation funding.
The latest proposed extension of federal highway funding includes a provision to delay a mandate for automatic-braking equipment on trains that could turn passing the measure into a game of political football.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved its version of a long-term highway bill, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform (STRR) Act of 2015 (H.R. 3763).
The Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure laid out the long and winding road ahead for passage of a multi-year highway bill by both chambers of Congress.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has finally scheduled a hearing to mark up its version of a long-term highway funding bill for Oct. 22 – seven days before the current short-term patch authorizing spending on transportation runs out.
Sen. Tom Carper contends all that’s needed to restore the Highway Trust Fund is to raise federal fuel taxes by four cents a year for four years and then index the rates to inflation from then on.
The Senate passed its massive and contentious long-term highway bill and then approved the three-month extension of federal highway funding passed earlier by the House. The $8 billion patch, which runs out on October 29, has been sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign the bill.
The House late Wednesday passed a short-term extension to keep federal highway funding going until October 29, right before members left on August recess, leaving the Senate to deal with before the looming Friday deadline.
It looks like Congress is going to kick the can down the road again when it comes to highway funding after what looked like a game of "chicken" in recent days.
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