Democrats on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are asking House and Senate leaders to include an infrastructure funding boost in a short-term spending bill, pointing out that the increase was already paid for and approved by Congress in 2015.
Under the FAST Act, spending on transportation by the Highway Trust Fund was supposed to increase by $2.4 billion in fiscal 2017. But the continuing resolution that passed in September continued funding at the fiscal 2016 spending levels.
President-elect Donald Trump is aware of the need to repair the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges and has promised to submit a massive infrastructure package within his first 100 days in office, raising the hopes for a major transportation bill next year.
But the leading transportation Democrats argued that the country’s ailing infrastructure shouldn’t have to wait when Congress already guaranteed a funding bump.
