The U.S. House of Representatives voted Oct. 27 to extend highway and transit authority until Nov. 20, giving lawmakers more time to hammer out a multiyear funding and policy package.
Current funding is set to expire Oct. 29, making it likely that the Senate also will pass a short-term highway patch this week.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said in a statement that passage of “today’s Surface Transportation Extension Act will ensure that states can continue to fund transportation projects while Congress continues to make progress on the multi-year bill.”
The House is expected to vote either Tuesday or Wednesday the week of Nov. 2 on the six-year Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, which was passed out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Oct. 22.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said he expects the measure will come to the floor with a revenue title.
House passage of STRRA would clear the way for the House and the Senate to conference their respective measures into a final highway bill before the Thanksgiving holiday.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Oct. 22 overwhelmingly approved via voice-vote a six-year, $325 billion surface transportation bill that largely maintains baseline funding for highway and transit projects.
The Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, H.R. 3763, is a companion bill to the Senate’s DRIVE Act passed in July.
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