Obama Signs $305B Highway Bill

President Obama signed into a law a five-year, $305 billion highway bill on Friday, with just hours to spare before the scheduled expiration of the nation's road and transit spending.
 
Funding had been set to expire at midnight.

The new law, paid for with gas tax revenue and a package of $70 billion in offsets from other areas of the federal budget, calls for spending approximately $205 billion on highways and $48 billion on transit projects over the next five years. It also reauthorizes the controversial Export-Import Bank’s expired charter until 2019. 
 
The measure is the first long-term national transportation spending package in a decade. It follows a string of temporary patches that began before Obama entered office. 

Ending the pattern of short stopgap funding fixes has been a priority this year for both the Obama administration and Republican leaders in Congress. 
 
Obama has railed against short-term patches, and he noted Friday that the highway bill that he received from lawmakers fell short of a six-year, $478 billion proposal he sent to Congress earlier this year. 

"This bill is not perfect, but it is a commonsense compromise, and an important first step in the right direction," Obama said in a statement ahead of the bill signing on Friday. 

Congress has not passed a transportation funding bill that lasts longer than two years since 2005.

The new law, dubbed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or the FAST Act, formally reauthorizes the collection of the 18.4 cents per gallon gas tax that is typically used to pay for transportation projects, and also includes $70 billion in “pay-fors” to close a $16 billion deficit in annual transportation funding that has developed as U.S. cars have become more fuel-efficient. 

Read the full report at The Hill.