Obama Signs Highway Stopgap, Pushes Action on Ex-Im, Appropriations
President Barack Obama signed into law on July 31 the three-month stopgap measure for the Department of Transportation’s surface infrastructure funding. The legislation, HR-3236 (here), extends funding through Oct. 29 and transfers $8.1 billion from the Treasury General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund. Obama praised congressional passage of the stopgap before signing the bill, but urged lawmakers to rally behind a long-term solution to highway funding. “We operate as if we’re hand-to-mouth three months at a time, which freezes a lot of construction, which makes people uncertain, which leads to businesses not being willing to hire because they don’t have any long-term certainty,” said Obama (here). “It’s a bad way for the U.S. government to do business.”
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Obama also pushed lawmakers to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and develop quick consensus on appropriations for Fiscal Year 2016. The Senate passed a six-year transportation funding bill on July 29 that includes Ex-Im reauthorization and the Port Performance Act, among a wide range of other provisions. House leaders refused to act on that legislation before departing Capitol Hill on the same day for August recess. Obama has yet to sign into law an appropriations bill for FY16, and federal government funding will expire at the end of September. Congress may be edging closer to another continuing resolution to extend federal funding, lawmakers and congressional experts have said.