WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a long-term transportation bill, but with House lawmakers already dispersed for their August recess, the bill will become just one more sticky issue on a jam-packed congressional agenda in the fall.
The $350 billion long-term bill was approved Thursday on a 65-34 vote with bipartisan support. It would make changes to highway, transit, railroad and auto safety programs, but its sponsors were only able to find enough money to pay for the first three years of the six-year bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the bill's passage, "a win for our country."
Immediately after the vote, the Senate turned to a three-month patch previously passed by the House that extends the government's authority to process highway and transit aid payments to states through Oct. 29. Without congressional action, that authority expires at midnight Friday. House Republican leaders opted for the patch to give themselves more time to work on a long-term — and long-sought — transportation bill.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.