Federal Highway Bill Gets Another Extension

Congress couldn’t agree on re-authorizing the highway act.  It melted down in the House, which just couldn’t agree to get behind efforts by House Speaker John Boehner to move some policy actions along with the money bill.  Last night the House passed a 90-day extension of the current Safe-Tea-Lu law crafted by Don Young seven years ago and named after his late wife, Lu. Re-authorization was due in 2009, but instead Congress keeps passing extensions of the old law.

One of the problems is that people are driving less, which reduces the revenue from the federal motor fuel tax.  There is a two-year Transportation Re-authorization bill passed in the Senate on a bi-partisan vote, which is being backed by the Obama administration.  It is being called Map-21.