On Friday, December 4 President Obama signed into law a five-year, $305 billion highway bill. Known as the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (or the FAST Act), it is the first long-term highway funding bill that has been passed since 2005.
Funding will predominately come from gas tax revenue, as well as includes a package for $70 billion from other areas of the federal budget. The bill allocates $205 billion for highway projects and $48 billion for transit. It also reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank's charter through 2019.
While the President stated his disapproval of receiving a bill that did not extend funding for as long a period as he'd hoped–earlier in the year he proposed to Congress a six-year, $478 billion bill–he said the one he received and signed on Friday was a step in the right direction.
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