Senate EPW pushes highway bill release to Monday, announces Thursday markup

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee; David Vitter (R-La.), EPW ranking member; Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Subcommittee; and John Barrasso (R-Wy.), T&I ranking member on Thursday announced that the committee will release the text of its new highway bill Monday and will mark up the bill Thursday of next week.

Boxer announced last week that she wanted to release the bill’s text this week, and our sister site, Commercial Carrier Journal, reports that the bill was expected to be released today.

The EPW Committee is slated to mark up the bill on Thursday at 10 a.m.

Boxer reiterated the committee’s previous announcement that a main focus of the bill would be a multi-year solution.

“This job-creating legislation provides the long-term funding certainty that states, cities, and businesses need while maintaining and improving the efficiency of the successful TIFIA program and establishing a formula-based freight program to improve the movement of goods on our surface transportation system,” Boxer said.

The current highway bill, MAP-21, will expire on September 30. However, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) — the main source of funding for most state and local projects — is projected to run out of money this summer, at least one month before MAP-21 expires.