Measure could pave the way for a 12-month SAFETEA-LU extension
Logistics Management
Jeff Berman, Group News Editor
2/24/2010
Continued funding for federal highway and transit programs received a significant boost earlier today, when the United States Senate-in a rare display of bipartisanship-voted today to pass the $15 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act.
A major component of this bill would extend highway and transit programs through the end of 2010, as well as transfer $20 billion from the United States General Trust Fund to the Highway Trust Fund in interest foregone since 1998. And the bill's text added it would also halt annual payments that the Highway Trust Fund makes to the General Trust Fund as reimbursement for tax-exempt users of the highway program, including state and local fleets and transit providers. The bill also will repeal an $8.7 billion rescission of states' highway contract authority that took effect on September 30, 2009 and was passed in the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) legislation, which expired at the end of September.
Since that time, federal highway and transit funding, which goes toward surface transportation maintenance, development, and construction, has been kept afloat by multiple continuing resolutions typically ranging from four-to-seven weeks and keep funding at current levels. The most recent continued resolution passed by Congress keeps highway and transit funding intact through the end of this month.
On the House side, the House in December passed H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010, which would extends SAFETEA-LU through the end of the 2010 fiscal year (September 30, 2010), and adds fixes to the Trust Fund. The House approved it 217-212...
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Posted on
Thursday, February 25, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski