AASHTO Journal, 19 September 2014
Thursday evening, the Senate passed H.J. Res. 124, a short-term continuing resolution approved by the House on Wednesday to provide partial appropriations for the new federal fiscal year that starts on October 1.
The CR funds federal programs through Dec. 11 at the same rate they were funded in FY 2014 and provides additional funding for military action in Syria. The CR also provides $7.9 billion of obligation limitation for the Federal-aid Highway Program, which represents the 72-day portion of the full FY 2014 highway obligation limitation set at $40.3 billion. The measure also provides about $2 billion for federal transit programs and $280 million for federal highway safety programs.
The CR does not affect the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 (PL 113-159) enacted in early August, which provided $10.8 billion of general fund dollars to the Highway Trust Fund to avoid delays in federal reimbursements to state DOTs (see related AJ story) and extended the federal highway, highway safety, and transit programs authorized in MAP-21 through May 31, 2015.
However, due to the short-term nature of the current continuing resolution, state DOTs will be provided only about 10 weeks of federal surface transportation funding (through Dec. 11) rather than the nine months of funding as prescribed in the MAP-21 extension.