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The US Senate passes the two-year surface transportation authorisation bill

2 July 2012 0 comments

Basak Kotler

On 29 June, the US Senate passed the two-year surface transportation authorisation bill, the aptly named MAP-21 - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century. The bill now goes to the President who is expected to sign it shortly.

This bill is the long-awaited successor to SAFETEA-LU which expired in September 2009 and includes US$82 billion for the highway programme and US$21.3 billion for the transit programme over two years – FY’13 and FY’14 (fiscal years ending 30 September 2013 and 2014).  The obligation ceiling for the highway programme would increase from US$39.14 billion in FY’12 to US$39.69 billion in FY’13 to US$40.25 billion in FY’14.

While at one point the industry had hoped for more, and there are still serious concerns about the long-term funding of the Highway Trust Fund, MAP-21 will provide some needed stability and visibility to the highway and transit programmes.

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