The Senate will vote early next week on the House’s bill to extend funding to the Highway Trust Fund until May. The upper chamber is poised to debate and vote on the bill and four amendments to it, including the Carper-Corker-Boxer Amendment, which ASCE supports. If passed, the amendment would shorten the funding extension, thus requiring Congress to revisit the topic by December and make a decision to pass a long-term, sustainable bill for the Highway Trust Fund. This would shorten the length of uncertainty for states, and allow for better planning of transportation projects. Maryland’s Senators authored an op-ed on the value in a multi-year transportation bill, again detailing the benefit of longer term transportation funding laws.
Vice President Joe Biden tried his hand at the White House White Board video series to explain once again the value in infrastructure investment.
While it can often seem Congress is “riding on four flat tires,” as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says, there was an encouraging announcement from another part of the federal government, The Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $10 billion in private funding for rural infrastructure investment.
Next week’s Senate actions will provide clearer next steps in the quest for a long-term, sustainable bill to #FixtheTrustFund.
