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A swift voice vote by the Senate on Oct. 28 to send President Obama legislation that would extend funding authority for highway programs through Nov. 20 marked the 35th time Congress has passed such short-term fixes.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who last week pledged support for long-term highway funding, dropped out of the race for U.S. House speaker on the day his party was poised to nominate him to replace John Boehner, as an internal Republican feud erupted into open warfare on Capitol Hill.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House plans to consider a multiyear highway bill soon, a senior committee aide told Transport Topics on Oct. 7.

Wall Street is desperately trying to persuade U.S. House lawmakers to kill a proposal that would use money from banks to fix the nation’s highways. A key concern is that once Congress taps the finance industry to help fund infrastructure projects, it won’t be able to stop.

Electronic Funds Source said it offers a new way to stop unauthorized fuel purchases in real time by using a combination of truck telematics and fleet card transaction data to verify information before fuel is dispensed.

The top Democrat on the Senate’s transportation panel is predicting that Congress will approve a three-year highway bill, possibly as early as this fall.

A group representing key transportation stakeholders has launched a radio ad campaign to press federal lawmakers to advance a long-term highway bill this fall.

The way Anthony Foxx sees it, there's nowhere to go but up. “The good news, I think, is we are close to rock bottom,” the transportation secretary said Aug. 12 about the struggle to get a commitment from Congress to a long-term highway funding bill.