The United States Senate approved a two-year blueprint for transportation on Wednesday that will give states a greater spending flexibility, allow the federal government to set minimum safety standards for subway systems, and buy time to find a solution for a funding system hanging on the verge of bankruptcy. The bipartisan bill may hold the only chance that legislation reaches the White House before the deadline. The Senate bill won broad support, passing on a vote of 74 to 22. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said, “On March 31, if we don’t act on this transportation bill, everything will come to a screeching halt. We are very close to the day when everything will stop.”
The bill lowers the number of federal transportation programs from about 90 to less than 30, gives states money for projects that ease congestion and air pollution, increases highway safety funding, cuts red tape that delays projects, and expands a federal program that provides loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment. The Senate bill also mandates, for the first time, that federal safety standards be set for transit systems, regulation that has been endorsed by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., since the 2009 Metrorail crash in which 9 people were killed. Although the massive bill reforms federal transportation programs and priorities, it does not resolve the most pressing federal transportation issue, which is, unraveling how to meet financial demands of replacing systems nationwide that are reaching the end of their life spans.
