Senator Boxer said: "I am very pleased that the proposed House extension of the transportation bill matches spending levels set by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a bipartisan markup on Thursday, September 8, 2011.

The original House proposal would have cut spending by more than 30 percent, which would threaten hundreds of thousands of construction workers' jobs and thousands of businesses.

I also welcome the longer extension because it gives more certainty to the private sector and to states and local governments in their plans for road and transportation projects.

The one red flag I have is that contract authority was cut by $3 billion in the House proposal.

While this does not impact spending levels at this time, I intend to do everything to keep the next multi-year transportation bill at current levels of funding, because to do less would lead to more unemployment and raise serious safety issues as we face the challenge of deteriorating roads, bridges and other transportation systems."

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