House to Take Up Highway Bill Oct. 22
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up a highway bill Oct. 22, the panel announced.
“Our nation’s economy depends on a safe, efficient surface transportation system, and one of the Transportation committee’s priorities is to address the needs of the system,” committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said Oct. 14. “Next week, the committee will move forward with the policy and authorization provisions of a bill to improve America’s surface transportation infrastructure, reform programs, refocus those programs on national priorities, provide more flexibility and certainty for state and local partners, and welcome innovation.”
The House bill would include truck safety provisions, but a funding mechanism for the bill remains unclear. The man tasked with isolating funding for the bill, Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), has been distracted by colleagues who are urging him to run for speaker. Senators, meanwhile, are asking their House counterparts to use the measure the Senate passed in July as a model. That bill would fund highway programs for three years.
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials president Paul Trombino III told Transport Topics that it is “tremendous” the House will consider the highway bill reauthorization.
“I think it’s a great step for us getting a long-term transportation bill,” he said.
With highway funding authority expiring at the end of the month, Congress is likely to approve a short-term funding extension.
The markup is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building.
