The United States Senate passed a robust, six-year highway bill as well as a three-month extension to current funding, reports the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF). With a healthy bi-partisan majority of the Senate supporting the bill, the DRIVE act or Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy act, was passed off the floor by a vote of 65-34.
The legislation includes language that would end the federal funding of motorcycle-only roadside checkpoints as well as defining autocycles as their own class of vehicle.
The bill now moves on to the House of Representatives where it will receive attention in the fall.
The Senate also passed a three-month extension to the current funding of transportation programs. That extension runs out just before Halloween, so the House is likely going to act before then.
Bill managers, Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-CA) worked together to create the bipartisan majority needed to pass the bill, with approximately three quarters of the Republicans and slightly more than half of the Democrats (including Democrat-leaning Independents) voting in favor of it.
The funding portion of the bill, however, remains a stumbling block. As of now, the bill contains revenue offsets to fund its first three years from 2016 thru 2018. If enacted, Congress would have to find additional revenue sometime before October 2018 for the final three years.
The MRF will keep you updated on this issue.
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