President Trump sounded the call again for rebuilding this country's infrastructure as he implored Congress to approve the highway authorization bill that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved more than five months ago.

 

The legislation, a bipartisan effort of Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, and Democratic Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, would increase outlays for highway construction 27% over current funding to $287 billion over five years.

The Engineering News Record cautions however that the highway portion is just a part of what a comprehensive surface-transportation bill traditionally contains as other committees in the Senate, such as transit and highway safety, have to have their say of what goes into the full bill.

Most importantly, the committee in charge of revenue would have to weigh in as the expansion of funding would have to be reconciled elsewhere in the budget.