House Restricts Toll Provisions While Passing Highway Bill

he House of Representatives passed a $275 billion transportation funding package that severely cut back attempts to impose tolls on interstate highways and also granted some exemptions to truck drivers’ hours-of-service rules.

The bill, passed April 2 by a 357-65 vote, included about $217 billion for highway spending, $52 billion in mass-transit funding and $7 billion for highway safety, including commercial-vehicle safety.

Before the final vote, the House rejected a provision that would have allowed trucks an exemption from weight rules if they had an alternate truck-cab power source. It also turned down a provision that would have included a truck ban on secondary highways in New Jersey that a court had just struck down.