Pavement Preservation Journal, Winter 2015, Vol. 8, No. 4
Tracy D. Taylor
D.C. may be in chaos, but the Highway Bill marches on!
Despite the tumult in Washington, D.C., this fall with Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) announcing his resignation in the end of September, followed by the withdrawal from the speaker’s race of his likely successor Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and the election of Ways & Means Committee chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as the new speaker, progress continued on much needed long-term surface transportation program reauthorization.
On Nov. 5 – after three days of debate and consideration of over 100 amendments – the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a multi-year surface transportation bill, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (STRRA), H.R. 3763. With passage of STRRA, it’s likely Congress will provide the American public with an important and much needed holiday gift: a long term surface transportation law.