House Approves Highway Extension

AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley stressed the need for Congress to enact a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization bill during the next seven months so no more short-term extensions of SAFETEA-LU are needed.

The House of Representatives voted 421-4 to extend until Sept. 30 federal highway and transit programs that were slated to expire. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Today's vote came one day after the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sent a letter to all members of Congress urging swift adoption of the measure.

''While AASHTO continues to support congressional efforts to enact a well-funded, long-term surface transportation bill, the absence of such a bill makes this extension essential to creating and sustaining jobs and maintaining America's transportation infrastructure,'' wrote AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley. ''Furthermore, this extension provides much needed certainty for the construction industry, states, and localities as they begin the 2011 construction season.''

The bill passed by the House, HR 662, would extend until the end of this federal fiscal year the 2005 highway and transit authorization law - the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, commonly known as SAFETEA-LU.

Expenditure authority for the Highway Trust Fund would also continue through Sept. 30. This would be the seventh short-term extension of SAFETEA-LU, the latest of which expires in two days. The act was originally scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2009, but has not been replaced by another long-term measure.

- Courtesy of AASHTO