President Obama Inks Highway Patch

The Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015 (H.R. 2353) — the 33rd legislative patch slapped into place by Congress to keep road projects funded since 2008 — was signed into law by President Obama on Friday, according to the White House.

The bill passed the House on May 19 and was rubber-stamped by the Senate four days later. It will extend through July 31st funding for Federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs financed by the Highway Trust Fund as well as the authority to make expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund and to deposit tax revenues into, and obligate from, the Highway Trust Fund.

The President wielded his pen reluctantly, given that his administration contended in a policy statement that the two-month patch cobbled together by Congress at nearly the eleventh hour “represents yet one more short-term extension coming on top of the several short-term extensions that preceded it.”

The White House added that it “expects that the Congress will use this two-month extension to make meaningful and demonstrable progress towards a significant bill in 2015.”