A Major Infrastructure Bill Clears Congress
A Major Infrastructure Bill Clears Congress
The House and Senate send President Obama the largest transportation package in more than a decade, costing $305 billion over five years.
The five-year infrastructure bill is the longest reauthorization of federal transportation programs that Congress has approved in more than a decade, ending an era of stopgap bills and half-measures that left the Highway Trust Fund nearly broke and frustrated local governments and business groups. President Obama will sign the bill into law, as it fulfills his long-running push for lawmakers to pass an infrastructure bill even though it is significantly less than the $478 billion he sought in his own plan earlier this year.
The Senate approved the highway bill
on an 83-16 vote. All but two Democrats—Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tom Carper—voted for it.