House Passes Highway Bill
Employees, Kenny Mooney, Bob Williams, and Matthew Kuticka, who work for JLA Construction of Repbulic, Mo., work on a retaining wall that is part of an overpass being constructed over Highway 71 south of Lamar, Mo, on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009. The overpass, part of the national stimulus package, will allow traffic on Highway 126 to pass over busy 71. (AP Photo/Mike Gullett) (AP Photo/Mike Gullett)
The House voted 373-52 to pass the highway bill on Friday. The Senate is expected to give the bill final passage later today.
My colleague Niraj Chokshi has the details, which emerged earlier this week:
After months of wrangling, several stops and few starts, and 11th-hour pressure from leadership to forge a compromise, negotiators have reached a triple-header deal on transportation authority, a student loan interest rate cut and the national flood insurance program. That's right, there's a bill.The 599-page bill--and 91-page explanatory statement--posted overnight, represents Congress' last hope at passing a major jobs bill before the November elections and prevents transportation authority and the student loan interest rate cut from expiring this weekend. The flood insurance program is set to expire at the end of July. Transportation authority is renewed through fiscal year 2014, while the rate cut is extended to July 1, 2013 and the flood insurance program is renewed for another five years.
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