With the October 30th deadline having arrived on the first thirty day extension of SAFETEA-LU authorization and no action on separate extension legislation, the House and the Senate included language in the Continuing Resolution needed to fund most of the Federal government to continue highway and transit program spending authorization until December 18, 2009. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee bipartisan leadership had hoped to enact a six month extension of the program and to address in that bill the $8.7 billion rescission of contract authority that went into effect on September 30. However, objections from two republican Senators prevented the bill from coming to the Senate floor. Both Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) and the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) contacted Senators supporting enactment of the six month extension but also urging that the Senate use this time to continue working on a six year bill with increased transportation investment. The House has already passed a three month extension also with the intent of continuing to work on the long term bill.
In an effort to keep the pressure on Congress to complete action on the reauthorization bill soon the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) have initiated the “Start Us Up USA” campaign. This week AEM and AED organized an event on the Washington mall which included a caravan of construction equipment to bring attention to the dire employment conditions in the construction industry and specifically the equipment manufacturer segment. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee (T&I) Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) addressed the crowd calling for a multi-year reauthorization bill that puts Americans back to work.