Congress Approves Long-Term Highway Bill

Transportation advocates applauded lawmakers for the votes to approve the measure by wide margins in both chambers, which came with just one day to spare before the scheduled expiration of the nation’s road and transit spending on Friday. The money is not earmarked to specific projects.

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.

“Many said a multi-year highway bill would never pass the Senate, but we proved them wrong – and we proved it could actually pass by a wide, bipartisan margin”, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

In addition to the boost in funding, the Newberg-Dundee bypass and the OR portion of Interstate 205 were designated high-priority corridors, which makes it much more likely that they’ll get federal funds in the future. “That’s our usual process”.

Additionally, the FAST Act would emphasize bridge reconstruction and safety, a key issue also cited by Tagert. FAST Act reauthorizes federal surface transportation policy and funding through 2020. Funding will then rise by about two percent per year until the bill’s final year. That’s $310 million more than we got from the feds over the last five years. The state must set a schedule for the project and contribute matching dollars.

The 34 projects were worth $123 million. ODOT, local governments, ports and tribal governments will be eligible to apply for this new funding. That tax hasn’t been raised since 1993 even though transportation spending has increased. OR has led the way in exploring new ways to fund transportation with the first-in-the-nation road usage charge program, OReGO.

Still, Rokita expressed disappointment the gas tax went unchanged.

To keep down the gas tax – which traditionally funds infrastructure repairs – Congress has allowed the IRS to use private debt collectors, which some lawmakers worry leaves low-income taxpayers open to abuse.

The legislation includes several provisions that benefit members of the NGFA, including a port performance statistics program. “Additionally, this bill will make a much needed investment in improving our roads, bridges and transit systems here in OR”.

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. Saying he was unhappy with some of the ways the government will raise the money to pay for the package, Womack added: “I am nevertheless encouraged that the House and Senate were able to work together to bring this five-year, fully-funded surface transportation reauthorization to fruition and put it on the President’s desk”. It also reauthorizes the controversial Export-Import Bank’s expired charter until 2019.