House T&I Panel to Take Up Highway Bill Soon
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House plans to consider a multiyear highway bill soon, a senior committee aide told Transport Topics on Oct. 7.
At that committee markup, which is expected to take place sometime this month, lawmakers would be looking to advance legislation that would authorize highway programs for as many as six years.
The panel’s Republican leadership had expressed a desire to take up the multiyear measure shortly after the August break. Concerns over funding provisions, and disputes regarding transit and environmental regulations, have contributed to the markup’s delay, aides said.
Even if the panel sends a multiyear highway bill to the full House in the coming weeks, both chambers may not have time to agree on a final highway bill before an Oct. 29 deadline. Federal funding authority for highway programs is scheduled to expire on that date.
House T&I Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said a short-term highway funding fix would be necessary to give his transportation authorizers additional time to finalize a long-term bill. Last week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that as the chamber’s next speaker he would focus on passing a six-year highway bill. Elections for the speakership are scheduled for Oct. 29.
The Senate advanced a six-year highway bill in July. Speaking on the Senate floor on Oct. 7, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, an architect of that bill, urged her House counterparts to move on their version.
“More than two months ago, the Senate acted in a bipartisan fashion to pass a long-term transportation bill that increases funding for road, bridge and transit projects. This legislation provides the certainty that our states, businesses and workers desperately need,” Boxer said. “Now we are up against this deadline and what has the House done? I had received assurances that the House would follow the lead of the Senate and introduce and pass a long-term transportation bill. It has not done so.”
