Senate Schedules Markup of Federal Surface Transportation Authorization Bill

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW Committee) is scheduled to markup a two-year surface transportation reauthorization bill Wednesday, November 9th at 10:00 a.m. According to a press release from Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Committee, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, and Senator David Vitter (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) is a bipartisan effort that “holds spending at current levels plus inflation, greatly increases leveraging of federal dollars, and modernizes and reforms the nation’s transportation systems to help create jobs and build the foundation for long-term prosperity.” While the legislative language has not yet been released publically, an outline is available on the committee website. 

It is essential to note that while the Senate EPW Committee markup is an important initial step in the reauthorization process, the Senate Finance Committee still must identify the additional revenue needed to support the two-year package. Additionally, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has yet to schedule a markup and Chairman John Mica (R-FL) has indicated he prefers a six-year authorization measure. The House Ways and Means Committee must also identify revenues for an authorization bill.