President Donald Trump on September 2 signed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through December 11. The House had approved the measure a day earlier.
The Senate passed the bill before going into recess on August 8. The House passed its own “clean” version of the bill on July 21 to fund the government through December 4. But he voted 370-48 to approve the Senate measure that includes the extension of transportation-related unobligated funding authority under the Jobs Infrastructure and Investment Act. Without the extension, the Highway Trust Fund’s contractual authority for discretionary highway, bridge and transit grant programs under the law would have expired on Sept. 30.
“For stakeholder organizations that care about infrastructure, making sure that all the [infrastructure law] Programs are expanded as part of continuous resolution is … critical,” says Steve Hall, executive vice president of government affairs for the American Council of Engineering Cos.
With midterm elections looming, observers say lawmakers are reluctant to see another government shutdown like the two that occurred last year, including the longest in U.S. history. “There is [been] a lot of pressure on the House to approve the [resolution]” says Josh Leonard, senior manager of legislative affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors. “Many legislators want to return to their districts to campaign in these tough races, and that will be the priority.”
While a multi-year extension of the surface transportation authorization program has yet to be introduced in the Senate, trade groups are focused on seeing the continuing resolution enacted so that critical funding programs do not expire. “We still hold out hope that maybe we can get a vote in the House on the construction bill. But I think for all of us right now, the goal is to make sure that Congress does continuing resolution the right way,” Hall says.
With the Senate back on Sept. 14 and both chambers out of session after Oct. 2, congressional leaders have a very small window to push through a number of critical bills. The front line for most construction trade groups is the enactment of the $580 billion Build America 250 Act, which would extend funding for transportation programs through fiscal year 2031. The measure easily passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on May 22 with lawmakers from both parties supporting it.
But comparable legislation has yet to be introduced in the Senate. “What we’ve really been looking at is the Senate Public Works Committee, the Commerce Committee and the Senate Planning Committee, which would be the key players,” says Alex Etchen, vice president of construction advocacy and risk management at Associated General Contractors. Other priorities include passing a new Water Resources Development Act and the National Defense Authorization Act, which likely won’t be considered until the lame-duck session after the midterms, observers say.
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