Congress Passes $305 Billion Infrastructure Bill, Obama Expected to Sign

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Blaze:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has approved a 5-year, $305 billion bill to address the nation’s aging and congested transportation systems, loading down the measure with industry favors, parochial projects, safety improvements and union demands, to win overwhelming bipartisan support.

 

The bill was approved on a 359-65 vote in the House, and an 83-16 vote in the Senate. The bill that was passed on Thursday now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.

 

The bill boosts highway and transit spending and assures states that federal help will be available for major projects. It doesn’t include as much money or last quite as long as many lawmakers and the Obama administration would have liked. Nor does it resolve how to pay for transportation programs in the long term.

 

Despite that, the 1,300-page bill was hailed by industry and public officials as a major accomplishment that will halt the cycle of last-minute, short-term fixes that have kept the federal Highway Trust Fund teetering on the edge of insolvency for much of the past eight years.

 

Republicans leaders can point to the bill’s passage as evidence of their ability to govern, and Obama can claim progress on addressing the nation’s deficient bridges and crowded highways, a major goal since the early days of his administration.

 

“This bill is not perfect, but it is a common-sense compromise, and an important first step in the right direction,” Obama said in a statement Friday.

 

Lawmakers in both parties praised the bill as a model of bipartisan cooperation.

 

“In the end, there wasn’t really a philosophical problem here,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “The question was, how could we pull together these disparate pieces into one mosaic that actually had a chance to get somewhere?”

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Yeah, well, we'll see...