Senate passes highway extension

By a 68-29 count, the Senate passed its $17.6 billion jobs bill—called HIRE—that contains $20 billion for highway and transit programs. Democrats have promised that there will be more bills addressing unemployment before 2010 comes to an end, but details of the next round of aid have not been released. The President was expected to sign the latest jobs bill immediately.

Stronger enforcement against offshore tax havens is expected to pay for much of the bill, but the measure also is expected to add $13 billion onto the national debt.

Still, lawmakers were pleased at the bipartisan outcome.

“I am pleased that the Congress has finally passed a long-term extension of the federal highway program,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a statement. “After months of delay, due to politics as usual in Washington, Congress finally passed an extension that will ensure states receive the money they are owed and provide the long-term certainty that is the lifeblood of state and local highway and bridge programs.

“In my state of Oklahoma, the impact of the failure to pass a longer term extension before Sept. 30 of last year has been severe,” Inhofe continued. “Oklahoma, like all states, has been on life support relying on federal funding measured in days rather than years.”