House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee John Mica (R-Fla) announced last week that, beginning in Mid-February, he plans to hold field hearings or "listening sessions" outside of Washington to get more input from local and regional officials on what to include in the next transportation legislation.
Mica indicated that this is the first step in crafting a new multi-year surface transportation bill, although he did not give a time frame for completing work on the House version of the bill.
Chairman Mica said his priorities in the legislation are to reform the existing surface transportation programs to reduce costs, speed up project delivery, make greater use of loans from existing federal government programs and give more incentives for private investment in transportation projects.
Chairman Mica also indicated his immediate priority will be to complete legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). FAA has been operating under a series of 17 extensions because Congress has been unable to come to agreement on the terms for a new authorization measure.
The highway and transit programs are currently operating under a short term extension that expires on March 4. AGC is advocating an extension of the program through the end of the fiscal year to provide some certainty to states on the level of funding while Congress negotiates the legislation.
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