Senate Passes 90-day Extension of Transportation Bill

The U.S. Senate followed the House of Representatives' lead and passed a 90-day extension to the nation's multi-year surface transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU*. This action marks the bill's ninth extension since its expiration at the end of September 2009.

The Senate's passage of H.R. 4281, the Surface Transportation Extension Act, buys Congress time to agree on a longer-term transportation bill, or to pass another extension. It also buys advocates more time to rally for continued support for federal programs that have paid for thousands of miles of recreational trails in the last decade, such as rails-to-trails projects, bike lanes, sidewalks and other cylcing and pedestrian infrastructure. 

• Consolidate the Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails programs into a new program called Additional Activities.
  
• Authorize state departments of transportation (DOTs) to make their Additional Activities funding available to metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and local governments. The state DOT will allocate 50 percent of the Additional Activities, based on population, to MPOs and rural areas. MPOs will then distribute the funds through a competitive grant program for projects in their communities. For the remaining 50% of Additional Activities, the state DOT would host its own competitive grant process for projects. Local governments, school districts, and others would be eligible to compete for this funding.