EPW Finishing Up Long-Term Highway Bill

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leaders Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said they are finishing up work on a five or six-year highway bill, Politico reported.
More
 

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leaders James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said they are finishing up work on a five or six-year highway bill, Politico reported.

EPW Chairman Inhofe said May 6 that the pair would begin working on a long-term highway bill in the next couple of weeks and were at a point where they could come up with a bill, a price tag and the timeframe that it would cover.

The announcement came just one day after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) criticized congressional leaders for not having already put forth a funding fix for current highway law, which expires at the end of May.

Congress passed an $11 billion bailout of the Highway Trust Fund in July 2014 that also extended the current highway law until May 2015.

“This is kind of a joke that there’s not even a bill and we’re 26 days away,” McCaskill said during a Commerce subcommittee hearing.

Sen. McCaskill said it was clear that Congress would pass a short-term funding patch.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said May 5 during a speech on the Senate floor that he would block a trade deal unless the Senate takes up long-term transportation legislation because trade authority legislation shouldn’t trump a highway bill.

Subscribe to Updates

NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.