WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed a bill that would temporarily patch over a multibillion-dollar pothole in federal highway and transit programs.
The vote was 367 to 55. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
The bill cobbles together $10.8 billion by using pension tax changes, customs fees and money from a fund to repair leaking underground fuel storage tanks to keep the federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for transportation programs nationwide, solvent through May 2015. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.
Without congressional action, the fund will no longer have enough money to cover promised aid to states by the first week in August.
