One-Year Extension of the FAST Act Included
On September 22, the House passed a bill to fund the federal government, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through December 11, 2020. Thanks to AGC and a unified stakeholder community effort, a one-year extension of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act – the current highway and transit law – was included in the CR. The extension would provide current levels of funding for federal highway and transit programs through September 30, 2021. In addition, the CR provides $13.6 billion to shore up the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for the duration of the extension. That amount is divided between the two accounts within the HTF: $10.4 billion for the Highway Account and $3.2 billion for the Mass Transit Account. The Senate is expected to pass the CR with the one-year FAST Act extension on September 29, thereby averting a shutdown of federal government agencies and programs, including the federal-aid highway and transit programs.