By a vote of聽, the House approved HR 4348, a 90 day extension of the surface transportation programs through Sept. 30, 2012. The legislation will act as a vehicle to conference with the Senate on a longer term transportation reauthorization bill. H.R. 4348 was amended on the House floor to include the environmental streamlining provisions from H.R. 7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, the five year comprehensive transportation reauthorization bill that was reported from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee earlier this year but was lacking sufficient support for passage on its own. Also included in H.R. 4348 were several good provisions not directly related to the highway and transit programs as follows:
- The 澳门六合彩开奖预测 supported provision allowing approval of construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
- The text of the 澳门六合彩开奖预测 supported Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act that would, among other things, prevent EPA from defining fly ash as a hazardous waste, thereby, limiting its beneficial use.
- An 澳门六合彩开奖预测 supported amendment guaranteeing that the total amount available for spending from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) each fiscal year would equal Trust Fund receipts as estimated by the President's budget for that year.
- The 澳门六合彩开奖预测 supported RESTORE Act directs much of the money 聽from Clean Water Act fines resulting from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to be used for infrastructure investments in Gulf coast states.
The Obama Administration issued a statement prior to the vote threatening to veto H.R. 4348 based on the inclusion of the Keystone XL pipeline. While 澳门六合彩开奖预测 has consistently and unequivocally called for a long-term transportation reauthorization bill with increased funding and significant program reforms, political realities have prevented that from happening. 澳门六合彩开奖预测 supported the current strategy of passing H.R. 4348 as a means to conference with the Senate on S. 1813 to provide program continuity, certainty in funding levels for the next 15 months and program reforms.聽澳门六合彩开奖预测 and our stakeholder partners were very involved in educating and urging House Members to vote for the bill. The聽聽can be found here along with coalition letters from the聽聽and the.
It is anticipated that the House and Senate will begin negotiations 聽soon to resolve the differences between their respective versions of the bill.聽聽In conference, the Senate would appear to have the upper hand on most of the transportation policy issues since the House was not successful in passing the policy initiatives in H.R. 7.聽聽The House might have some leverage, though, since it could refuse to accept the Senate policy changes and insist on current law.聽聽The most politically controversial issue that the conference will have to resolve is the Keystone pipeline language.
澳门六合彩开奖预测 will continue to monitor the situation and work closely with those Members of Congress who will serve on the conference committee to ensure any final package has the greatest possible impact on the construction industry.
For more information, please contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 ordeeryb@agc.org.