Houses Passes Six-Year Highway Bill

Last week, the House passed (363-64) the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform (STRR) Act that provides $325 billion in contract authority for highway and transit programs for six years. During the amendment process, a funding amendment was introduced by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) and passed that would replace one of the Senate pay-fors in the bill. The Neugebauer amendment would increase funds for the highway bill by $40 billion by transferring money from the Federal Reserve surplus into the general fund of the Treasury. This newly found surplus of money could help fund the highway bill for the full six years. The Senate offsets that were struck were opposed by the banking industry and several lawmakers in the House and Senate. The Neugebauer amendment is likely to be taken up and approved during the highway bill conference committee. The House has named a total of 28 conferees and the Senate is expected to follow suit this week. Another short-term extension is expected due to the short time frame to conference the bill. The latest extension of highway and transit authority expires on Friday, November 20.

The bill includes three NRMCA priorities, including the Hours of Service 30-minute break exemption, the Drivers’ Record of Duty Status (logbooks) exemption and a provision to increase the air-mile radius from 50 miles to 75 for the transportation of construction materials and equipment. After final passage of the bill, NRMCA joined the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) and the Highway Materials Group (HMG) in sending letters to the House of Representatives congratulating members on passing a bipartisan, multiyear highway bill.

Click here to read the TCC letter. For more information, contact Jill Landry at jlandry@nrmca.org.