U.S. President Barack Obama signed a short-term transportation bill extending funding for highways and other surface transportation through Nov. 20, the White House said. The temporary measure will prevent a shutdown in infrastructure funding, while also extending a key rail safety deadline to the end of 2018.
Lawmakers have been struggling to come up with a long-term highway funding bill that is normally financed by 18.4-cents-per-gallon gas tax, which brings in $34 billion out of the $50 billion needed for transportation projects.
"Our country needs a consensus-based, bipartisan, long-term surface transportation bill that will provide states and local communities the funding and certainty to plan and construct multi-year projects to modernize our infrastructure," Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement after the Senate approved the temporary highway-funding patch.
“I am disappointed yet another short-term extension was needed [Wednesday]," Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said in a statement after the Senate vote on the temporary highway funding extension.
“Nebraskans want a long-term transportation bill that provides certainty, advances highway project construction, and enhances road safety," Fischer continued.
