Congress backs $305B transportation bill

“This bill is an investment in America and the infrastructure that underpins our economy”.

A long-term bill to ensure funds for highways and transit was finally approved by Congress on Friday. “Over the next five years, the hundreds of billions of dollars in federal highway and transit investment guaranteed in the bill will stimulate more than $13 billion in equipment sales, rental and maintenance activity and support more than 4,000 dealership jobs each year”.

The long-term bill will allow the DOT to move forward with most of the 100-plus projects in its Statewide Transportation Improvement Program for 2016, including highway reconstruction, bridge replacements and preventative maintenance, Salwei said.

After a seemingly endless series of short-term funding patches, Congress passed a long-term transportation funding bill late Thursday that will give states the predictable funding stream they have always been calling for.

Crawford added, “Our office has been in talks with (the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department) about adding safety features which are long overdue, especially since the road has already been operating like an interstate for around 15 years”.

Spending on the infrastructure that keeps the nation moving will not increase by much.

President Obama has said he will sign the $305 billion highway funding bill.

Critics believe this is a broken model for funding road and bridge projects in the states.

“Although this highway bill will be longer-lasting than the ones that have been enacted in the past several years, it continues the trend of papering over the shortfall temporarily with gimmicks and general revenue savings”, wrote Adam Rosenberg, a policy analyst with the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Organizations including the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Retail Federation, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association and the National Governors Association hailed passage of the FAST Act, the first multi-year surface transportation bill to become law since 2005.

MTN News- Congress has approved a 5 year highway and bridge bill that is crucial for Montana.

Nor should sales of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be used to pay for highway maintenance; nor should “capturing” the Federal Reserve’s “rainy day fund” go into the Highway Trust Fund – but that was how this $300 billion, five- year deal was assembled. Committee chair Bill Shuster, R-Pa., called the bill “one of the most important things this Congress can accomplish for our country”.

Democratic Sens. Tom Carper (Del.) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) and 14 Republicans, including GOP presidential candidates Sens.

The bill includes various funding sources, including a transfer from the Federal Reserve’s surplus funds and an increase in customs fees.