With Little Progress on Six-Year Bill, New Extension Seen Nearly Inevitable
With highway funding authority set to expire April 30 and little Capitol Hill progress on a multi-year transportation bill, another short extension is all but inevitable, industry and congressional sources say.
The House and Senate have approved differing versions of a six-year successor to the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, but a conference committee to work out those differences has not yet begun. TEA-21 expired last Sept. 30 and the federal highway and transit programs have been operating since then under two extensions. The second extension runs out April 30. If no new bill is enacted by then, the Federal Highway Administration would be forced into a virtually total shutdown.