President's signature extends highway & transit programs for seven months

On March 4, President Barack Obama signed into law a measure that extends until Sept. 30 federal highway and transit programs that had been slated to expire that evening. The seven-month extension averts a suspension of reimbursements from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the states for their ongoing surface transportation improvement projects, as occurred last March when a similar extension was delayed, and allows states to continue to commit projects just in time for the construction season to begin in earnest.

The Senate approved the legislation, HR 662, by voice vote on March 3.  The Senate's vote came without debate in the midst of consideration of an unrelated measure to reform U.S. patent laws. The House of Representatives had voted 421-4 on March 2 to pass the bill.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-California, said in a statement that the seven-month extension of Fiscal Year 2009 funding levels for highways and mass transit will save and create jobs in the construction industry and help get the economy back on track.

"With the construction season upon us, this extension is especially important because it will give states the certainty they need to award contracts and get projects underway," she said. "This will help ensure that jobs are saved and created in California and across the country. I am continuing to work with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle on a new surface transportation bill for the 21st century. Our goal is to get this legislation enacted by the end of this year."

In a statement issued Thursday evening after Senate passage of the bill, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Florida, said the extension will provide some stability for state transportation departments to continue planning and constructing transportation projects through the summer construction season.

"This extension of transportation programs will allow more time for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to develop a fiscally responsible, long-term reauthorization of transportation programs to create jobs and build our nation's infrastructure," Mica said.

The new law extends until the end of this federal fiscal year the 2005 highway and transit authorization law -- the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, commonly known as "SAFETEA-LU." Expenditure authority for the Highway Trust Fund would also continue through Sept. 30.

This is the seventh short-term extension of SAFETEA-LU, which expired Sept. 30, 2009.

Source: AASHTO