House Passes Highway Funding Patch – Action Shifts to Senate

This week, the House, by a vote of 367-55, approved H.R. 5021, a $10.8 billion Highway Trust Fund patch which provides sufficient revenue to maintain current funding levels through May 2015. The bill also extends MAP-21 authorization for the highway and transit programs for eight more months. It received strong bipartisan support from 181 Republicans and 186 Democrats, while 45 Republicans and 10 Democrats voted against it. Revenue needed to support the patch came from a general fund transfer which was off-set by a variety of tax code adjustments. AGC and our coalition partners in the Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) and the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) urged the House to support H.R. 5021 to avoid a disruption in payments to states, while urging Congress to take action to enact a long-term transportation bill by the end of the year.   The action now heads to the Senate where debate about limiting the extension until Dec. 31, 2014 is expected, with the hope of forcing consideration of a long-term transportation bill following the mid-term elections in November. The Senate Finance Committee has already passed a bill that provides the same amount of revenue as the House bill, although using some different off-sets for the general fund transfer. It is expected that the Finance Committee bill will also be offered as an amendment. It is fully anticipated that a patch will be approved before Congress leaves for its August summer recess. Additional revenue for the Highway Trust Fund is necessary to avoid a slowdown in reimbursements to states for on-going highway construction projects in the next few weeks. For more information, please contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.