Barbara Boxer

Senate Passes Transportation Extension

The Senate has passed the Surface Transportation Extension Act, extending SAFETEA-LU for the seventh time and keeping the transportation program going at current spending levels. The House passed the bill yesterday.

By Tanya Snyder

9:12 AM PST on March 4, 2011

Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, released a statement expressing her satisfaction that the bill has passed both houses. “With the construction season upon us, this extension is especially important because it will give states the certainty they need to award contracts and get projects underway,” she said. “This will help ensure that jobs are saved and created in California and across the country.”

She said that she and her colleagues have a goal of finishing a new surface transportation authorization “by the end of this year.” (Perhaps she means the end of the fiscal year — she, along with John Mica and Ray LaHood, have been saying they plan to have a bill finished before the August recess.)

Tanya Snyder

Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Barbara Boxer | Federal Transportation Bill

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