Today, U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, made the following statement regarding the bipartisan proposals from both the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee to fund the highway trust fund through May of 2015.
"Building and fixing our nation's roads and bridges are vital to our daily lives, and it's encouraging to see both chambers working in a bipartisan way to fund our infrastructure needs in the short term," said Vitter. "This is a positive short term effort to prevent the highway trust fund from going broke, but I'll remain focused on a long-term reauthorization bill that invests in rural areas, expands flexibility for state and local governments, and improves safety."
Both the Senate Finance Committee bill and the House Ways and Means Committee bill will keep funding for critical road and bridge projects going through May of 2015.
In May 2014, the EPW Committee unanimously approved S.2322, the MAP-21 Reauthorization Act, a long-term bipartisan bill to reauthorize the nation's transportation programs for six years at current funding plus inflation. The legislation is cosponsored by Vitter and EPW Chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), along with Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee.
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