lawmakers hoping to vote on a finalized surface transportation bill later this year

​Members of Congress are working their way through legislation designed to replace the sweeping Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, otherwise known as the FAST Act.

Peter DeFazio, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently told reporters that he hopes to see a new five-year, $329 billion bill completed sometime next month, with the committee sending the legislation to the floor in April.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee passed its own $287 billion reauthorization of the FAST Act last summer, although the larger Senate has yet to act on the matter.

Yet one more version may be coming from the White House, which, according to reports, is looking at a larger $810 billion version with a life span of 10 years.

That version, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao just announced in a public statement, is going through the “clearance process within the executive branch.”  Part of that process includes a vetting of the proposal by the Office of Management and Budget.

The FAST Act is scheduled to officially expire on September 30.

It originally passed Congress in December of 2015, providing up to $305 billion for a variety of surface transportation projects between 2016 and 2020.

​By Garry Boulard

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