Boxer Files Highway Trust Fund Extension

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., filed legislation extending Highway Trust Fund programs until the end of the year, heeding President Obama’s call for “clean” extensions of critical transportation funding programs.

Surface transportation programs are set to expire Sept. 30. Legislation extending the federal aviation programs has yet to be filed.

Transportation industry officials and state government officers who use federal funds for much of their road and bridge projects have warned that any repeat of that delay in the surface programs could disrupt thousands of projects nationwide as the construction season winds down this fall.

Congress in late July let Federal Aviation Administration funding lapse briefly, throwing 4,000 FAA employees out of work along with tens of thousands who were working on various FAA-funded airport projects. That example raised fears that a contentious Congress could do the same again with the FAA authority, and even with the surface programs.