A major transportation infrastructure bill has cleared one half of Congress. KDLG’s Chase Cavanaugh has more.
The Highway Transportation and Funding Act of 2014 has passed the US House of Representatives with a vote of 367 to 55. The Act allocates funding for federal highway, transit, and safety programs through May 31, 2015. While this does provide short-term financing of these infrastructure programs, Alaska Congressman Don Young chastised the president for ignoring past efforts at more long-term legislation.
“Mr. Speaker, I say respectfully, this is a two way street. We have to understand this is a really important piece of legislation that keeps us going, but then we have to solve it permanently and let’s be leaders, which we do not have down on Pennsylvania Avenue right now on infrastructure.”
The Act also provides extra money to the Highway Trust Fund, which collects money from gas taxes, and was originally used to finance the interstate highway system. The full text of HR 5021, which heads to the Senate, can be found at congress.gov.