Senate Looks to Solve Highway Rescission Problem

Since Congress failed to act prior to the September 30, 2009 deadline, a rescission of $8.7 billion in highway program budget authority required in SAFETEA-LU was implemented. As a result of the rescission, 30 states will lose about $335 million in actual highway funding dollars in FY 2010 and all states will have limits on their ability to use federal highway dollars to fund state priority projects. Since the highway and transit programs are currently operating on a thirty-day authorization extension, Congress must pass further extensions to keep the programs operating. Key Senate transportation leaders are looking for budget offsets to allow the reversal of the rescission so that all states will have their lost budget authority restored.  They also are looking to the next authorization extension as the vehicle for solving this problem. AGC has met with key decision-makers and written to the entire House and Senate urging that this rescission be reversed to avoid further deterioration of the highway construction market.