Bills Introduced – 10-28-21

Yesterday, with both the House and the Senate preparing to leave Washington for the weekend, there were 70 bills introduced. While none of the bills will receive future coverage in this blog, I do want to mention one in passing:

HR 5763 To provide an extension of Federal-aid highway, highway safety, and transit programs, and for other purposes. Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]

This bill provides a short-term extension of the various surface transportation programs that would normally be covered by a surface transportation authorization bill, one of the annual must-pass bills that Congress is supposed to deal with every year. This year, the surface transportation bill is HR 3684, the large spending bill that has been intertwined with the so-called build back better bill (HR 5376). There has still not been an agreement reached on the wording of the BBBB (though it looks like a scope of the bill may have been ironed out).

HR 5763 was necessary because the previous short-term extension (HR 5305) is due to expire on Sunday. This bill extends the deadline for passage of HR 3684 until December 3^rd, the same date set for the passage of a spending bill for the federal government. So, December 3^rd will become an even more important date for political pundits to point at with concern.

HR 5763 passed yesterday in both the House and Senate. The President will probably sign it while he is out-of-town for the global climate conference.