Obama signs 5-year infrastructure spending bill

The Senate voted 83 to 16 in favor of the bill, which authorizes $305 billion in spending on transportation projects over the next five years.

Mr. Shuster is head of the House Transportation Committee and chaired the joint House-Senate committee that produced the first long-term bill since 2005, which President Barack Obama signed Friday.

Indiana Fourth District U.S. Representative Todd Rokita says the federal highway bill recently passed by Congress provides reliability in funding and eliminates stress for states and contractors as they plan to upgrade and maintain roads. “After a decade of piecemeal fixes, Congress has finally heard the National League of Cities’ call to pass a transportation bill”, said Clarence E. Anthony, CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities.

The FAST Act will help communities respond to the growing demand for bicycle projects and build cost-effective transportation.

He said the FAST Act, however, was not the answer to solving the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. “Our work will result in Louisiana getting a guaranteed increase of up to $100 million annually with additional grant opportunities funded at $800 million to $1 billion each year”. But sales won’t start until 2023 – three years after the transportation legislation it helps pay for has expired. This is an important step toward providing the long-term stability our transportation planners need to transform our nation’s crumbling roads and infrastructure and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“(Thursday) the House passed, with my support, a five year transportation reauthorization”, Kelly said in a statement released by his office. “We’ve got to find a way to improve out transit system”.

Republican Ron Johnson says, “The FAST Act’s bipartisan conference report is the product of months of thoughtful negotiations and public input”. These short-term funding measures can increase construction costs by as much as 30%, by some estimates. And you’ll be happy to hear that this infusion of cash will come without an increase in the gas tax, which remains unchanged despite nationwide gas prices that are hovering around $2 a gallon.

Conservative groups panned the reliance on transfers from other areas of the federal budget to finance the highway bill. The bill would move $53 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank’s capital account to the general treasury. The money for those programs remains subject to annual spending decisions by Congress.

The girls’ mother, Cally Houck, said in a statement she was thrilled by the measure but remained “deeply concerned” about a loaner auto loophole that exempts vehicle dealers with fewer than 35 cars for renting or loaning to customers.