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WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee on May 13 voted to send a fiscal 2016 transportation funding bill to the House floor after defeating an attempt by Democrats to remove a provision that would add new requirements to a study on an hours-of-service rule for truckers.

The House Rules Committee has scheduled a hearing on a measure sponsored by the leaders of the tax-writing and transportation policy panels that would extend highway funding authority through July.

Assessing the political landscape on Capitol Hill, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told government and business leaders May 14 that Congress is not close to passing a six-year highway bill.

WASHINGTON — A panel of transportation experts debated several proposals to rescue the nearly insolvent Highway Trust Fund but offered little hope that Congress, facing a May 31 deadline to pass a transportation bill, would approve a long-term solution.    

The top Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works panel unveiled legislation May 14 that would extend surface transportation authorization into July, the same time a key highway account is projected to run low on funds.

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index rose 3.1% in March from the same month in 2014, to the second highest-level on record, DOT said May 13.

Leaders of the transportation policy committee in the Senate said May 13 they will schedule a markup in June to consider a bill that reauthorizes surface highway programs for six years.

WASHINGTON — A way for Congress to ensure long-term funding for the country's highway system would be to approve a 10-cent gas tax increase and index the tax to inflation, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Transport Topics May 13.

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee on May 13 voted 30-21 to send a fiscal 2016 transportation funding bill to the House floor after defeating a Democratic attempt to remove a provision that would add new requirements to a study on an hours of service rule for truckers.

WASHINGTON — To kick off Infrastructure Week’s “advocacy day” on May 13, the president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America called on lawmakers to advance a long-term measure that improves the country’s aging infrastructure.