Congress OK’s 2-month transportation patch

Prior to leaving Washington for the Memorial Day weekend, Congress passed a two-month patch to fund surface transportation through the end of July.

This short extension of the federal surface transportation law, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), came days before the law was set to expire. Had the law expired, the federal Department of Transportation was set to begin cash management practices that may have temporarily curtailed reimbursements of state projects, causing delays and uncertainty in the midst of construction season.

A majority of Massachusetts state highway and bridge projects receive federal funding and are jeopardized by uncertain funding streams.

Congress must again take up surface transportation funding prior to the end of July, at which point legislators will either pass another short-term extension or a new multiyear surface transportation bill.

While a multiyear surface transportation bill would bring new initiatives and funding certainty, at issue is the funding mechanism to pay for such a bill. The bill is traditionally paid for through the Highway Trust Fund, which receives revenue from the federal gas tax. The Highway Trust Fund continually hovers on the brink of insolvency, however, and additional revenue sources remain a highly contentious issue in Congress.