House-passed highway bill gives states financial assurance

The bill calls for spending approximately $205 billion on highways and $48 billion on transit projects over the next five years.

The measure also revives the Export-Import Bank whose charter expired earlier this year after some conservative Republicans targeted it as a waste of government money.

The bill, approved 359-65 in the House and 83-16 in the Senate, doesn’t include as much money or last quite as long as many lawmakers and President Barack Obama’s administration would have liked.

The pay-fors would leave the Highway Trust Fund with $10 billion at the end of 2020, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Congress has been struggling for years to come up with a way to pay for a long-term transportation funding extension without raising the gas tax. The bill ties customs fees to inflation and uses the increased revenue to offset the bill’s cost.

Among the bill’s losers are large banks, which would receive lower dividends from the Federal Reserve, with the savings used for transportation programs.

Lawmakers who worked on the multiyear highway bill hailed the votes to approve the measure as a “historic” legislative victory for infrastructure advocates.

It will also provide the state with additional funding for a variety of other projects said Panos. “The bill passed by the Senate today represents the longest highway authorization in more than a decade, and I am glad we can finally move forward with infrastructure improvements that will benefit Missouri’s families and small businesses, and provide a foundation for the 21st century economy”.

The future I-11 has always been a priority for Senator Heller.

The bill contains substantial increases in federal highway funding for Louisiana.

Rep. Bruce Westerman said Thursday’s vote was “good for Arkansas and good for America”.

The bill, known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, will fund highways and transportation infrastructure across the nation over the next five years.

“The FAST Act will offer five years of stability to our nation’s surface transportation programs while steadily increasing infrastructure investment”, Slater continued. Baldwin is also pleased with the FAST Act including a requirement for railroads to be more transparent and provide local officials a public version of the most recent bridge inspection reports.

President Obama is expected to quickly sign the highway funding measure on Friday to prevent an interruption in the nation’s transportation spending.