RE:US is getting a 5-year $305BN highway Bill
Photo: ThatMakesThree / photo on flickr
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a five-year, $305 billion highway bill Thursday night that the House approved earlier in the day. The bill now moves to the White House, where President Obama is expected to sign it into law.
“If passed, this legislation would be a real step forward for our transportation infrastructure after years of short-term patches,” says John Earnest, White House press secretary, in a Wednesday press briefing.
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act represents the first long-term national transportation spending package since SAFETEA-LU expired in 2009.
The bill received tremendous support from both chambers of Congress. The Senate approved the FAST Act with an 83-16 vote. The House approved it with a 359-65 tally. Congress faced a Friday deadline to get a deal done to assure federal infrastructure funding goes uninterrupted.
According to The Hill, the FAST Act spans 1,300 pages. Gas tax revenue and a $70 billion package in offsets from the federal budget supply the majority of the funds – about $205 billion for highways and another $48 billion for transit projects. The bill also reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank’s expired charter until 2019.
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) says the FAST Act would grow annual federal highway investment by 15.1 percent from the current $40.3 billion to $46.4 billion. The association says the bill does not provide a permanent solution to the Highway Trust Fund’s structural revenue deficit.
“The measure uses a variety of one-time cost savings and non-transportation resources to supplement incoming trust fund revenue to support its investment levels over the next five years,” ARTBA says.