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Upon completion of the debt ceiling legislation, Congress adjourned for its summer recess without taking up long-term highway and transit reauthorization legislation. While both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (T&I) and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) have released outlines of what will be included in their bills, neither has actually released legislative proposals. EPW Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had hoped her committee would be able to mark up a bill prior to the recess, however, that did not happen.

On Aug. 5, the Senate approved legislation to extend the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization through Sept. 16, ending a two-week partial shutdown. The Senate, even though it went into a month-long summer recess after Tuesday's vote to clear a debt ceiling bill, held a "pro forma" session last Friday morning to approve the legislation by unanimous consent and President Obama signed it into law.

Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) have introduced 51���� supported legislation today to create a tax credit bond program dedicated to transportation infrastructure. Transportation and Regional Infrastructure Project bonds or TRIPs will be a financing tool to fund the transportation projects throughout the country.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released a report this week which documented that deteriorating surface transportation infrastructure will cost the American economy more than 870,000 jobs, and suppress the growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product by $3.1 trillion by 2020. The report, conducted by the Economic Development Research Group of Boston, showed that in 2010, deficiencies in America’s roads, bridges, and transit systems cost American households and businesses more than $129 billion, including approximately $97 billion in vehicle operating costs, $32 billion in delays in travel time, $1.2 billion in safety costs, and $590 million in environmental costs.

51����'s Stephen Sandherr joined Secretary LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt at New York's LaGuardia Airport to discuss the economic impacts of the abrupt halt to $2.5 billion worth of airport construction projects. The event took place at the halted construction project to demolish the decommissioned FAA Airport Traffic Control Tower.

Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) have introduced 51���� supported legislation today to create a tax credit bond program dedicated to transportation infrastructure. Transportation and Regional Infrastructure Project bonds or TRIPs will be a financing tool to fund the transportation projects throughout the country.

On Tuesday, 51���� sent letters to the House and Senate urging passage of a multi-year aviation authorization bill to avoid further disruption to a construction industry that is already reeling from a steady decline in market opportunities which has resulted in the loss of 2.2 million construction jobs. The effort was made necessary after Congress failed to pass a short term extension of authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). FAA authorization expired on September 30, 2007, and Congress has passed 20 short term extensions of authorization to keep the agency and its programs operating.

Congressional failure to pass federal aviation legislation is putting roughly 70,000 construction and related jobs at risk by forcing a halt to $2.5 billion worth of airport construction projects.  The halt of so many airport projects will have economically "devastating" impacts on the industry, the economist warned.

Senate and White House Opposition Could lead to Shutdown of FAA Amid opposition from the White House and the Senate, the House of Representatives passed by a vote of 243-177, the 21st extension of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding and tax extension bill, which would authorize funding for FAA through September 16.  Unlike previous extensions, this bill is not a “clean” extension; meaning it includes policy changes to current law.  The policy change in question would remove 13 of the 103 airports currently receiving Essential Air Service subsidies from the program, which would likely cause  those airports lose all scheduled air service.

EPW Releases Bill Outline, Holds Hearing A bipartisan deal on policy and spending provisions of the highway section of the surface transportation reauthorization has been reached by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Ranking Member Jim Inhofe (R-OK).  The bill has not yet been released, but Senators Boxer and Inhofe issued a 3 page outline of their bill on Tuesday.  The bill, called Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP -21) would provide $86 billion in contract authority for the federal highway program over the next two years.