At a White House East Room ceremony Friday, July 6, President Obama signed the Moving Ahead for the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). Congress passed the transportation reauthorization legislation just in time to beat the June 30, 2012, expiration date. A one week extension (the tenth of its kind) was also approved to allow time for the legislation to be filed in the proper format.

By a vote of 373-52 in the House and 74-19 in the Senate the conference report for, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), the transportation reauthorization bill has been approved. Although the vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, all 52 House members and 19 Senators who opposed the bill were Republican (see the list here). The President is expected to sign the bill sometime this week. A one week extension of program authorization was approved to allow time for the legislation to be put in its proper format.

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement today in reaction to Congressional passage of a 27-month highway and transit measure:

The House and Senate leadership and conferees reached an agreement yesterday on the final outstanding issues in the transportation reauthorization negotiations. Logistical issues related to finalizing language and getting sign-off from all conferees has kept the conference report from being formally filed.   The Senate and House, however, are still expected to vote on the measure before the June 30 deadline, in time to avoid the need for a 10th extension of highway and transit program authorization.

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in response to the recently-announced deal on a 27-month federal surface transportation bill by the Congressional conference committee: “The members of the conference committee have demonstrated the kind of tenacity, perseverance and flexibility that is often required to craft significant pieces of legislation like this new highway and transit bill.

This week, while conferees were attempting to reauthorize federal transportation programs, the House Appropriations Committee approved funding for transportation programs for FY 2013.

The House and Senate are moving closer to a deal on the highway and bridge portions of the surface transportation reauthorization bill.  This afternoon, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) issued a joint statement saying, “the conferees have moved forward a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on a highway reauthorization bill.”

House and Senate Committee staffs continue to discuss proposals and exchange language on a variety of issues as part of the conference committee negotiations to develop a compromise transportation reauthorization bill with the hope of getting a bill completed by the June 30 deadline. The majority of discussions have focused on project delivery and environmental streamlining reforms.

Today, the House of Representatives will vote on a Motion to Instruct conferees to slash FY 2013 funding on the surface transportation reauthorization bill.  The Motion to Instruct was offered by Representative Paul Broun (R-GA) and would limit funding in FY 2013 to $37.5 for federal highway and transit programs.  A Motion to Instruct is non-binding and, if it is adopted, it simply asks House conferees to take a certain negotiating position. 

Speaker Boehner Hints at 6-Month Extension Negotiations between the House and Senate over their separate versions of a transportation authorization bill accelerated somewhat this week when Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), together with Ranking Committee Republican Jim Inhofe (Okla.), personally delivered an offer of compromise language on provisions to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.). The “offer” was received by the House as a positive gesture. Chairman Mica said the House conferees would begin making "sequential counteroffers" today.