Washington, D.C. -- Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), issued the following statement after the House of Representatives approved a plan that would provide a temporary patch for the Highway Trust Fund until May 2015, undermining the effort to pass a long-term transportation reauthorization bill this year.
Senator Boxer said: "Sadly, the House has kicked the can down the road and has decided to shirk its responsibility to fix the Highway Trust Fund in this Congress. They have failed to send a message of certainty and confidence to the thousands of businesses and millions of workers who have asked us to act this year on a long-term solution for transportation."
Senator Boxer supports a patch through December that would allow consideration of a long-term bill this Congress. On May 15, 2014, the EPW Committee unanimously passed S.2322, the MAP-21 Reauthorization Act, a long-term bipartisan bill to reauthorize the nation's transportation programs for six years at current funding plus inflation.
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