A House bill introduced Wednesday would create a pilot program to test truck drivers’ hair strands for evidence of illegal drug use.

President Obama signed the federal highway bill into law at the White House Friday afternoon, which will fund transportation programs through September 2014, C-Span reported.

Congress was set last week to pass new transportation legislation authorizing highway spending through September 2014, after House and Senate negotiators agreed on a bill that included a mandate for electronic onboard recorders for trucks and a study of the 34-hour restart provision in driver hours-of-service regulations.

Days before all federally funded transportation projects could be forced to shut down, House and Senate negotiators were trying late last week to come up with a long-term reauthorization bill or another temporary extension.

House and Senate negotiators assigned to produce a compromise joint highway bill met last week in their only public meeting before slipping behind closed doors to work out issues ranging from funding to construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

An anti-fraud bill introduced in the House would raise the freight broker surety requirement to $100,000 and require separate broker and carrier licenses.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted last week to not support the Obama administration’s transportation budget proposals because administration officials have not identified revenue sources to fund multibillion dollar increases for existing and new programs.

PHOENIX — American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves lashed out at Washington for failing to make progress on a surface transportation bill, saying “political expediency” prevented essential action on improving the transportation infrastructure.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators left a closed-door White House meeting with President Obama last week divided over whether energy and climate legislation could pass and uncertain what form it might take.