{"id":64521,"date":"2015-11-09T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=64521"},"modified":"2015-11-08T18:50:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T23:50:16","slug":"six-year-highway-bill-passes-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=64521","title":{"rendered":"Six-year Highway Bill Passes House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Richard<\/a>
Richard Hanna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Nov. 5, 2015) U.S. Representative Richard Hanna\u00a0recently voted in favor of a six-year highway bill, which passed the House of Representatives with overwhelming support.<\/p>\n

Following three days of debate, during which more than 100 amendments were considered, the House approved a bipartisan, multi-year surface transportation bill to reauthorize and reform federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015\u00a0(the STRR Act) helps improve the nation\u2019s surface transportation infrastructure, refocuses programs on addressing national priorities, provides more flexibility and certainty for states and local governments, accelerates project delivery, maintains a strong commitment to safety, and promotes innovation to make the transportation system and programs more effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill gives our states and local municipalities the ability to plan to make important maintenance repairs and upgrades to our roads, bridges, highways and infrastructure,\u201d\u00a0Hanna said. \u201cIf we\u2019re not planning for the future then we have no future. I was pleased to support this bill and include four amendments. I look forward to seeing this bill signed into law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday the House voted to give our infrastructure and our economy a much needed shot in the arm,\u201dTransportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) said.\u00a0\u201cThe STRR Act provides strong reforms and policies to help us improve America\u2019s transportation system, and now we can get to work on resolving the differences with the Senate bill and carry a final measure over the goal line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Hanna\u00a0included four amendments in the bill.<\/p>\n

HANNA AMENDMENTS<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0State Infrastructure Banks:\u00a0In 2005, Congress established a State Infrastructure Bank program which authorized states to use up to 10 percent of a state\u2019s existing federal transportation dollars to establish an infrastructure bank for the purpose of financing local road or transit projects. State infrastructure banks pool public and private resources to finance these projects and stretch our limited federal resources to maximize investments.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the program expired in 2009 and was inadvertently omitted from reauthorization in the most recent highway bill, MAP-21, thus denying states the ability to use federal dollars to help capitalize their infrastructure banks. Rep. Hanna\u2019s amendment today brings back this financing mechanism.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Milk Hauling Weights:\u00a0Rep. Hanna\u2019s amendment allows states to issue special permits so that milk is shipped as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Hauling milk is a \u00a0unique process as the product is extremely perishable. Due to the supply of milk coming from farms, and the daily intake needs of processing plants, hauling this product can fluctuate unpredictably. As a result, milk handling requirements sometimes conflict with limits on truck weights. This is especially problematic for New York farmers who can\u2019t fully load their tankers due to drastically lower weight restrictions in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

To solve this problem, Rep. Hanna\u2019s amendment gives states the option to issue permits allowing milk haulers to match New York\u2019s higher weight standards. The permits would still need to comply with each state\u2019s trucking laws.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Young Commercial Drivers:\u00a0Rep. Hanna\u2019s amendment creates a graduated commercial drivers licensing program that would allow a licensed commercial driver between the ages of 19 \u00bd and 21 to operate a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce. This is especially important in the trucking and hauling industry and in areas like Binghamton, N.Y., which is in the Southern Tier of New York state and on the border of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. While these younger commercially licensed drivers are allowed to drive within the state as far as 491 miles from Buffalo to Long Island, they are prohibited from driving 15 miles from Binghamton to Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Young drivers who are qualified to operate commercial vehicles, and have obtained a commercial driver\u2019s license and passed all qualifying exams are already operating long distances within our state borders. There\u2019s no reason why they should not be able to drive less than 20 miles across state lines. This amendment allows for a pilot program to study the safety and efficiency of a change to this law.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Private Sector Engineering:\u00a0 Rep. Hanna\u2019s amendment expresses a Sense of Congress recognizing the value of private sector engineering services in delivering road, bridge, and public transportation projects.<\/p>\n

Just as states use private contractors to build roads and bridges, they also utilize private engineering companies to design them. While many DOTs partner well with private engineering firms, some states do not take advantage of the services and expertise available, essentially shutting-out these firms from competing for federally funded projects.<\/p>\n

This Hanna amendment makes it clear that collaboration between public and private engineers is essential to delivering the highest quality and most cost-effective projects, and that each state should strive to strike the most appropriate balance relative to each states\u2019 unique circumstances.<\/p>\n

The bill was approved by a vote of 363 to 64.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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(Nov. 5, 2015) U.S. Representative Richard Hanna\u00a0recently voted in favor of a six-year highway bill, which passed the House of Representatives with overwhelming support. Following three days of debate, during which more than 100 amendments were considered, the House approved a bipartisan, multi-year surface transportation bill to reauthorize and reform federal highway, transit, and highway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Hanna-for-web.jpg?fit=226%2C216&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-gMF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}