TTV: State DOTs Want Congress to Pass Long-Term Bill Before End of Calendar 2015

AASHTO Journal, 11 September 2015

State departments of transportation and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials representing them in Washington are hopeful Congress will enact a long-term surface transportation bill before the end of this calendar year, AASHTO Chief Operating Officer Jim Tymon told Transportation TV.

Tymon, who is also the association’s director of policy and management, said that if the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee can mark up its version of a long-term bill this month and get it to the House floor, negotiations over that measure and the Senate-passed bill could begin in October.

“Our understanding is that House leadership would love to see a transportation bill on the House floor sometime the end of September or the beginning of October,” Tymon said.

“If the House is able to get a bill off the House floor before the end of October, I think that’s great progress,” he added. “That would give the House and the Senate some time before the end of the calendar year to work out those differences and get a bill to the president’s desk before Jan. 1st.”

Tymon said although recent estimates from the Department of Transportation show the Highway Trust Fund could remain solvent through the middle of 2016, infrastructure planners want Congress to complete the work on a long-term bill before presidential-year politics slow action on major legislation.

He said Congress may in the meantime need to again pass a short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund past its current Oct. 29 expiration, “but at the very least we’re hopeful that a long-term, six-year surface transportation bill gets to the president’s desk before the end of the calendar year.”

Here is that TTV report:

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