Congress has passed a three-week extension, which expires November 20, for the Highway Trust Fund in order to give themselves enough time to reconcile two long-term bills. The Senate passed the long-term DRIVE Act over the summer, and the House recently introduced the Surface Transportation Re-authorization and Reform Act. Both of these authorize the Highway Trust Fund for six years, but only provide funding for three.

Facing an October 29 deadline, Congress passed a three-week extension to the Highway Trust Fund. The patch covers through November 20, at which time lawmakers hope to have a long-term bill ready for the president to sign.

While the Senate passed the 6-year DRIVE Act over the summer, the House only recently introduced its own long-term bill, the Surface Transportation Re-authorization and Reform Act, or STRRA. Like the DRIVE Act, STRRA authorizes 6 years of transportation spending, but only funds 3 years. Both bills have similar levels of funding, and create multimodal policy language. However, the DRIVE Act provides more opportunities for funding non-highway projects, and includes a higher increase in transit funding over the life of the bill.

There are enough similarities between the House and Senate bills that lawmakers believe they can reconcile the two into one before the November 20 deadline. Both chambers of Congress must pass an identical bill before it can go to the president. It is hoped that a long-term bill will be passed by Thanksgiving; otherwise, yet another short-term patch will be required.

Should a long-term bill pass, it would be the first bill that provides more than two years of authorization for the Highway Trust Fund since 2005.