House Advances 3-Month Highway Funding Patch
Before adjourning for the August break, House Republican leaders on July 29 garnered sufficient support from Democrats to send to the Senate a measure that would authorize funding for the Highway Trust Fund for three months.
The bill passed 385-34, setting the stage for Senate action on the measure before the trust fund’s authority expires July 31.
While the Senate this week flirts with the passage of a six-year highway policy bill, the chamber’s Republican leadership, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has indicated it plans to clear the most recent House-passed short-term funding bill. The White House also expressed support for the House measure.
SENATE: Voting on two bills July 30
Most transportation leaders in Congress explained that the three-month extension of the trust fund would help buy them time to perfect the Senate’s multiyear legislation when they return to the halls of Congress in September. Earlier this month, the House had passed a five-month highway funding patch — a proposal GOP leaders have abandoned to signal their sense of urgency for passing a long-term highway bill.
Not everybody was pleased with the consideration of the short-term measure, however. California Sen. Barbara Boxer, the top transportation authorizer for Democrats in the chamber, urged House Republican leaders, primarily Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, not to adjourn for the summer break July 29 and take up the Senate’s highway bill. She also criticized the latest highway funding patch.
“I guarantee you a three-month patch is not going to give the states the confidence to enter into any long-term agreement to fix any of the 60,000-plus bridges that are deficient and 50% of the roads that are not up to par,” Boxer said on the floor of the Senate standing next to a sign that read, “Where is the House bill?”
Over on the House side, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said he was told the White House would not support another highway funding patch.
The three-month measure would extend current authority of highway programs, thus maintaining the status quo for trucking regulations. The Senate’s six-year measure, which floor managers say is likely to advance to the House by the end of the week, is designed to reform several programs managed by federal trucking regulators, such as the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program’s public scores for carriers.
