ROADS/BRIDGES: House transpo chief seeks new bill by August

House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) wants to get a jump on passing a new federal transportation bill. Congress, however, did not exactly jump through hoops to get bills passed in 2013.

On Jan. 14, Shuster said the House would need to pass a replacement to MAP-21, which expires in September, by August to allow time for conference negotiations in the Senate.

“My hope is to get reauthorization done on time,” Shuster said during a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “We hope to take committee action in the late spring or early summer with the goal to be on the House floor before the August recess.”

Shuster does not want a repeat of what happened when SAFETEA-LU expired, which was a series of funding extensions that engulfed the road and bridge market in uncertainty.

Panelists at the Jan. 14 hearing pushed for an increase in transportation funding. MAP-21 produced about $54 billion annually for road and bridge work. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed testified, and asked for a six-year funding bill because “a two-year bill is not very helpful to us.”