House appropriators on May 13 will take up a fiscal 2016 funding bill that includes a 34-hour restart provision that adds new requirements on the study Congress ordered last year.

WASHINGTON  — Congressional Republican leaders will not consider raising taxes on gas and diesel fuels as a way to back transportation programs in a short-term measure and in a multiyear bill, the chairman of the Senate transportation policy panel told Transport Topics on May 5.

The next highway funding extension Congress approves should require the tax-writing panels to come up with a plan that ensures long-term funding for highways and transit projects, the Transportation Construction Coalition said May 6.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said she expects to offer legislation that would reform programs at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration before Congress takes up a long-term highway plan.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he was disappointed House appropriators last week advanced a fiscal 2016 transportation funding bill with a provision that would keep a suspension of certain mandatory rest periods for truckers.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Claire McCaskill on May 5 expressed her disappointment with GOP congressional leaders for not having already unveiled a funding fix for a highway account when transportation funding authority expires at the end of the month.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the tax-writing committee in the House, said April 30 that in about three weeks he will unveil a short-term measure that would keep highway programs funded for several months, or probably through the end of the year.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) said he does not think a university reviewing a recently suspended hours-of-service rule for truckers will reach a fair conclusion when it unveils its report later this year.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said any comprehensive measure that would address the country’s highway funding concerns will be called “unrealistic,” which was the term a top Senate Republican used to criticize the Obama administration’s latest transportation plan last week.