The bill was approved 359-65 in the House, and 83-16 in the Senate.
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[Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images]Though the highway bill fails to specify how the money for large transportation programs will be generated in the long run and clearly has a small window for remedying the transit infrastructure of the entire country, it has been a success for Republicans who can claim they can govern. MS will receive approximately $2.5 billion over the next five years, but there is no increase in funding.
Flexible funding for New Start projects: The bill will continue to allow state and local governments to use federal transportation funds to help pay for new transit projects.
The 1,300-page law authorizes $281 billion from the Highway Trust Fund and $24 billion from annual appropriations that lawmakers could decide not to approve in a given year, according to Jeff Davis, a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation.
“Traffic delays are strangling our economy, taking time away from our families and are a daily reminder that taxpayers aren’t getting a return on investment”.
“While I am disappointed by some of the pay-fors found to get there, I am nevertheless encouraged that the House and Senate were able to work together to bring this five-year, fully-funded surface transportation reauthorization to fruition and put it on the president’s desk”.
Yet Brian McGuire, president and CEO of Associated Equipment Distributors (AED), believes the FAST Act will help boost heavy equipment sales to the tune of $13 billion. Congress has not passed a transportation funding bill lasting longer than two years since 2005, and the five-year FAST Act will give states, transportation planners and contractors the time and certainty needed to make desperately-needed improvements to our infrastructure. Gary Palmer, R-Hoover, and Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, voted against the bill.
Like federal lawmakers, IN policymakers have been reluctant to raise the state’s 18 cents-a-gallon gas tax, which has lost 22 percent of its buying power since 2003.
“PeopleForBikes has worked diligently with Congress to highlight the importance of the transportation program to the bicycle industry”, Blumenthal said.
“For more than a decade, Congress has been stuck in neutral when it comes to passing a long-term bill to fund our highways and transit systems, only managing to pass dozens of short-term extensions”, he said. “Most importantly, this bill included my provision to extend I-11 through Northern Nevada”.
Oklahoma transportation officials say it will provide $643 million to the state in its first year.
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“The overwhelming, bipartisan vote for passage of the FAST Act shows once again that transportation infrastructure is a thread that has the capacity to bind America-whether it is red, blue or purple”.
