Dive Brief:

• The House passed a two-month extension for spending on highway construction and other infrastructure projects Tuesday.
• The extension, passed by a 387-to-35 vote, would set a new expiration date for the spending authority as July 31, instead of the current date of May 31.
• The bill is now in the hands of the Senate, which only has two legislative days to act before a week of recess for Memorial Day. The current transportation program's expiration date would occur during that recess.

Dive Insight:

If the Senate approves the bill, it would be the 33rd infrastructure stopgap measure passed in the last six years. The construction industry and transportation officials have been fighting for a full bill funding six years of transportation spending, but the sources of that money have been elusive. 

The fund is supplied mostly from gasoline and diesel taxes. However, increases in those taxes haven't occurred since 1993, which, coupled with less dependence on fuel-guzzling vehicles, has created a significant shortfall in revenue. Legislators from both sides of the aisle have refused to take action to raise the fuel tax, so Congress must find another way to infuse the transportation program with sufficient funding. 

Industry leaders have expressed their frustration with Congress' failure to settle on a full funding bill. "Once again, instead of addressing head-on one of the most pressing issues of our time, the U.S. House has simply chosen to pass another extension, kicking the can down the road, which by the way is crumbling beneath its feet," Sean McGarvey, North America’s Building Trades Unions president, said in a statement to the Engineering News-Record.

Many hope the two-month extension will give lawmakers enough time to debate the issue, find a resolution, and stop the seemingly endless string of stopgap measures.