Congressman Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania), chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, on Friday introduced the $325 billion Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform (STRR) Act of 2015 as a bi-partisan long-term solution for funding transportations needs.
Co-authoring the bill is Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and Eleanor Norton (D-Washington, D.C.)
The current patch for transportation funding passed this summer will end October 29. Industry leaders are anxiously awaiting either another short-term fix or the completion of a relatively long-lived solution such as this one or the Senate’s DRIVE Act.
Either way, legislators must act quickly to be the current deadline that is less than two weeks away.
The 543-page STRR would authorize funding for six years (fiscal years 2016-2021) and sets aside roughly $270 billion for highway and safety programs and $55 billion for transit programs.
The Federal-Aid Highway program alone would be appropriated $243.3 billion, with the following breakdown:
