House and Senate both sign off on FAST Act

For the first time in nearly ten years, a long-term surface transportation bill could be en route, with both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate signing off on the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

Both chambers approved the bill with a day to spare as current federal surface transportation, which has been kept intact through a series of short-term extensions, or continuing resolutions, is set to expire today, December 4, with the five-year, $305 billion bill now awaiting President Obama’s signature to be signed into law.

Some of the freight transportation- and logistics-related components of the bill include:
-facilitating commerce and the movement of goods by refocusing existing funding for a National Highway Freight Program and a Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Program;
-promoting private investment in the surface transportation system;
-requiring changes to the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program to improve transparency in the FMCSA’s oversight activity;
-improve truck and bus safety by accelerating the introduction of new transportation technologies;
-includes fiscally responsible provisions to ensure the bill is fully paid for;
-ensures the Highway Trust fund is authorized to meet its obligations through FY 2020 and directs offsets from the FAST Act into the Highway Trust Fund to ensure fund solvency; and
-reauthorizes the dedicated revenue sources into the Highway Trust Fund, which periodically expire, among others

With a long-term bill on the horizon, how it will be funded is front and center for freight transportation and logistics stakeholders.

A report in The Hill said it will be paid for with gas tax revenue, which remain unchanged at current levels, along with a package of $70 billion in offsets from other areas of the federal budget, with $205 billion to be spent on highways and another $48 billion on transit projects.