Congress paves path for long-term highway bill

With the current surface trans­portation law known as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) expiring on July 31 and the Highway Trust Fund once again barreling toward insolvency, Congress took action just in time to avoid calamity and set the course for a long-term reauthorization bill.

In the Senate, efforts pro­gressed to passage of a six-year surface transportation authoriza­tion bill. After a maze of parlia­mentary and procedural hurdles, a final vote was cast July 30. The Senate’s bill, Developing a Reli­able and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act (DRIVE), includes meaningful policy reforms for counties such as increased and designated funding for more county-owned bridges and safety reforms for high-risk rural roads.

Although DRIVE addresses a number county priorities for surface transportation reautho­rization, NACo continues to be concerned about certain policy provisions in the bill and hopes to work with Congress over the course of the reauthorization process to make the final bill a better product for counties and county-owned infrastructure.

The reauthorization process now turns to the House of Rep­resentatives where on July 29 representatives passed a three-month extension of MAP-21 that provides additional funding for the Highway Trust Fund. The Senate accepted and passed the House’s extension with the stipu­lation that those three months would provide sufficient time for the House to finalize and pass a long-term bipartisan bill that could be conferenced with the DRIVE Act this fall.

Although House members have left Washington, D.C. for their summer recess, House staff, particularly committee staff, will be using the month of August to work on their chamber’s bill so that members can take up the legislation once they return in September.

Counties are encouraged to meet with their delegations while they are in their home districts and express the importance of providing long-term certainty through a multi-year reauthori­zation bill. In addition, counties should urge their members of Congress to further improve upon the reforms proposed in the DRIVE Act by supporting additional county priorities for reauthorization.

Materials and information to help guide you in your advocacy efforts can be found at www.naco. org/map21. Additional questions from counties or congressional staff can be directed to Jessica Monahan, associate legislative director, at jmonahan@naco.org.