Congress Eyes Extension of Surface Transportation Law
Editor’s note: The House voted Tuesday to extend transportation funding. Click here for an update.
House and Senate leaders said they have reached an agreement on a temporary extension of the nation’s surface transportation law that will avert a shutdown like the one last month of the Federal Aviation Administration.
According to Congressional staff members on both sides of the aisle, for now, the agreement would keep spending levels at or about the 2011 spending level of $41 billion a year, avoiding the deep cuts of transportation threatened by Republican House members.
In the House a vote could be scheduled as soon as Tuesday, under a suspension of House rules that would require a two-thirds vote for passage but which would prevent anyone from attaching amendments to the extension.
The House bill would extend both the transportation spending bill, the latest extension of which expires on Sept. 30, and an extension of the FAA, whose temporary extension runs out Sept. 16.
The House bill, which has not yet been introduced, would extend transportation activities through March, while the FAA would be authorized to keep operating through January.
Although the House bill had not yet been introduced late Monday afternoon, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Sept. 8 unanimously approved an extension bill sponsored by Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
The prospect of a transportation shutdown — which would have halted construction projects, furloughed thousands of workers and prevented the federal government from collecting millions of dollars a day in fuel taxes — caused intense anxiety among state transportation officials.
