Senate Passes HR 3236

This afternoon the Senate passed HR 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, by a very bipartisan vote of 91 to 4. All four no votes came from Republicans. The bill extending the current surface transportation authorization until October 31^st now heads to the President for signature. TheHill.com is reporting that the President is expected to sign the bill.

Earlier in the afternoon the Senate passed HR 22 (which was the Hire More Heroes Act of 2015) which has become the bill that will provide long term authorization of surface transportation programs. That vote, 65 to 34, was still fairly bipartisan, but in a way that is becoming more common in the 114^th Congress; Republican conservatives made up almost half of the no votes.

Because this bill has been formulated as a series of amendments (including the basic amendment that completely replaces the original bill language) to the original bill, it is difficult to tell what the actual provisions of the bill look like. We should be able to see the version as passed by the Senate tomorrow or Saturday.

HR 3236 Passed in House

Early this evening the House took up HR 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. After just 24 minutes of debate the bill was passed by a strongly bipartisan vote of 385 to 34. This bill would extend the current surface transportation authorization (set to expire Friday night) until October 31^st, 2015.

It looks like the Senate will take up this bill tomorrow.

Rules Committee Hearing on Surface Transportation Authorization

The House Rules Committee announced a hearing this afternoon for the consideration of two bills; a VA accountability bill and an extension of the current surface transportation authorization (which expires Friday night) until October 31^st. TheHill.com is reporting that the transportation bill would be considered tomorrow and the House would then adjourn for their summer recess, leaving the Senate to approve either the new extension (in HR 3236), accept the previously passed 5 month extension (HR 3038), or let funding for transportation projects stop until the Congress returns in September.

Other than the length of the extension, HR 3236 and HR 3038 have very similar language with the exception that HR 3236 would include Title IV dealing with changes to some Veterans Administration programs. There is also an amendment proposed that the Rules Committee may look at this evening’s hearing that would provide for the extension of the Export-Import Bank Authorization until 2019.