Leading Lawmakers Back Extending Highway Law as Deadline Looms

Bipartisan support is growing to extend temporarily the nation’s highway law as Congress stalls on negotiating a new authorization ahead of the September deadline.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) backs extending the law (Public Law 114-94) that funds highways, public transportation, and rail, known together as surface transportation. House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), whose committee oversees the bill’s funding portion, also supports an extension if House Democrats and the administration fail to reach a deal on the package the House passed earlier this summer (H.R. 2).

Neal “hopes to avoid kicking the ...