Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The Senate rejected an effort to include the project in its two-year $109-billion transportation bill, while Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) found it difficult to garner support for his original five-year $260 billion package that called for the advancement of the Keystone XL pipeline.

On Tuesday, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL) and Members of the Committee unveiled the long-awaited American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act, which looks to authorize approximately $260 billion over five years to fund federal highway, transit and safety programs at current funding levels.

The controversial plan includes a call for increased oil drilling to help pay for infrastructure projects, according to several sources.

The legislation maintains funding at current levels, reforms the nation's transportation programs to make them more efficient and provides robust assistance for transportation projects under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program to leverage state, local and private-sector funding, according to the EPW.

The legislation freezes funding at fiscal year 2010 levels for highway, transit and highways safety programs.

Members of both parties said they would prefer a full reauthorization of transportation spending, but also said yet another extension is needed to ensure transportation construction can go forward over the summer.