WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee on May 13 voted 30-21 to send a fiscal 2016 transportation funding bill to the House floor after defeating a Democratic attempt to remove a provision that would add new requirements to a study on an hours of service rule for truckers.

WASHINGTON — To kick off Infrastructure Week’s “advocacy day” on May 13, the president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America called on lawmakers to advance a long-term measure that improves the country’s aging infrastructure.

The top two Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are pressing the panel’s chairman and the chamber’s top tax policy authorizer to schedule a joint hearing very soon that focuses on a long-term highway bill.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden said Congress will soon unveil a highway funding patch that ensures states continue to receive federal funding assistance after transportation funding authority expires at the end of the month.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said that while lawmakers focus on crafting a long-term transportation plan, his department is 20 days away from running out of its ability to use the “little bit of money we do have” to assist states with infrastructure.

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.