President Obama recently signed a three month stop-gap bill to prevent the complete draining of federal highway funding. Yet he also rebuked Congress for not being able to come up with a long-term measure.
In speaking with reporters at the Oval Office, President Obama said, “We can’t keep on funding transportation by the seat of our pants. That’s just not how the greatest country [in the world] does business. I guarantee you that’s not how China, Germany and other countries around the world handle their infrastructure. We should not be leaving all the business of the U.S. government until the last minute.”
He said that he had no option but to make a short-term arrangement so to prevent the interruption of money for bridges and road during the summer season when activity is at an all-time high.
The President also chided Congress for the Export-Import Bank that was left out of the highway bill while not making any progress in regard to budget talks. He also mentioned that by stalling the Ex-Im Bank proposal meant that the American people might not have access to thousands of jobs while also hurting both small and big businesses.
As for the temporary infrastructure funding, Obama signed a $8 billion package which will last until October 29, 2015.
In fact, the Republicans are not in agreement on how to cover an amount of $16 billion for surface transportation funding. There has been no consensus on how to solve this issue for almost a decade.
Even though the Senate passed a six-year highway bill, the House Republicans refused to accept it leaving Obama to sign a temporary three-month bill instead.