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President Obama on June 10 signed a water policy bill into law that allows dredging at ports throughout the country, ahead of the expansion of the Panama Canal.

WASHINGTON — A Senate panel voted overwhelmingly June 5 to suspend for one year changes to the hours-of-service restart provision implemented last year by federal truck safety regulators, and also approved a fiscal 2015 transportation spending bill.

The head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told a Senate panel her agency knew last year’s hours-of-service rule changes would affect trucking’s productivity and that she expects there to be a large amount of data showing it is increasing safety.

A pilot project in two states to require only a single visit to enrollment centers where truck drivers and other transportation workers obtain a Transportation Worker Identification Credential is being expanded nationwide, Transportation Security Administration officials told a Senate subcommittee last week.

Senate transportation funding leaders defended the need for the Department of Transportation’s popular infrastructure grant program and the way in which the department selects the grant winners, despite an effort by conservative lawmakers to significantly reduce the program’s funding allocation in recent years.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would be required to issue its final rule that all trucks have electronic logging devices by Jan. 30 under the transportation appropriations bill moving through the Senate.