The Senate voted Thursday to clear a five-year highway funding authorization measure, sending President Obama the first long-term road project measure in 13 years.
The measure passed easily, 83-16.
The bill, passed earlier this week by the House, includes a provision that will revive and reform the Export-Import Bank, which lost its charter on June 30 because of conservative GOP opposition.
The highway measure makes dozens of reforms and changes to funding aimed at improving road and bridge repairs as well as mass transit, including more money for bus transportation and railway safety.
Railway provision includes “robust reforms” to Amtrak, and the bill also permits competitors to operate three Amtrak long-distance lines if they can do so at a lower cost.
The measure authorizes additional federal funding to complete rail safety technology called Positive Train Control, which regulates against excessive speed.
The legislation authorizes funding for all federal road, bridge and highway projects and has been passed in short-term patches for more than a dozen years.
Lawmakers cobbled together funding for the $305 billion price tag in part by cutting the dividend paid to banks with assets greater than $10 billion. Another large chunk of funding comes from the federal gas tax, which has not been raised in years, but which the legislation extends at its current level until 2022. Other provisions providing funding include one requiring the IRS to use private debt collection agencies to collect outstanding taxes.
A majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate wanted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and used an unusual discharge petition to force a vote in the House earlier this year. They said the federal bank helped small businesses by providing loans to foreign companies so they could buy their goods and services.
Conservatives said the bank is a form of crony capitalism riddled with corruption that mostly benefits big corporations, including Boeing. But proponents praised its revival in the highway bill on Thursday.
“This vote was an important step to show that Congress can work together across the aisle to stand up for American businesses and workers,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.
