Shuster calls for passage of surface-transportation funding extension

“Getting [H.R. 3819] through the lower chamber isn’t expected to be the hard part”, Politico noted prior to the House’s approval of the bill.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass an extension Tuesday for railroads to install a speed control system that investigators say would have prevented this deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May.

The federal government typically spends about $50 billion on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in appropriately $34 billion at its current rate.

Thursday, October 29: The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing titled “Welfare and Poverty in America”.

Congress has not passed a transportation funding bill lasting longer than two years since 2005, according to the congressional newspaper The Hill.

Earlier this year, the congressman introduced the Infrastructure 2.0 Act, which would use revenue from a one-time tax on US corporate income earned overseas to fund a six-year highway bill and seed a transportation trust fund.

The White House has indicated it will sign the stopgap measure, the report said.

“It is time for the House and Senate to get to conference so that we can work out our differences and get the job done now”, the lawmakers said. The measure also extends the positive train control implementation deadline from the end of this year to December 31, 2018. The House and Senate would then hammer out an agreement.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. The extension had previously been attached to both the Senate and House’s multiyear highway bills after railroads threatened to partially shut down numerous nation’s railways. Though the amendment was ultimately withdrawn, it was done under the assumption that the two representatives would have the opportunity to continue to discuss such a provision with Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) and ranking member Peter DeFazio (D-OR). “A three- or five-year, blanket extension will be interpreted by the industry as a waiver of the requirement and send the message that by failing to meet future deadlines, they can simply come to Congress for additional extensions”, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a letter to Shuster. They are being led by Democratic Sen.