The federal law authorizing spending on surface transportation programs expires in less than six weeks. Congress has yet to take action to extend the programs beyond the Sept. 30 expiration of the current law, known as "SAFETEA-LU." While the House is moving forward with a $500 billion, six-year measure, Senate committees have approved a much smaller 18-month extension of current funding levels (to be combined with a $26.8 billion infusion for the Highway Trust Fund from the government's General Fund).

With no certainty over what will happen when Congress returns from its summer recess Sept. 8, some state transportation leaders say their departments will limp along maintaining the existing system until substantial funds are appropriated for expansion, CQ Today reported.

"We've reached the point where others are doing the things that allow them to surpass the efficiencies of our economy, and we are going to pay a terrible price for our inaction," said Pete Rahn, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, comparing U.S. investment in transportation to other nations.

Butch Brown, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and vice president of AASHTO, said it's difficult to plan for large long-term projects without large long-term funding commitments to pay for them.

"If we don't know that we're going to have a bill, it makes it scary for me to obligate funds to a project not knowing when those funds will be available to us," Brown said.

Allen Biehler, Pennsylvania transportation secretary and AASHTO president, noted recently that the positive momentum state transportation departments have received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be eviscerated if Congress does not act quickly to extend authorization for transportation programs.

"It will undo all the good work the stimulus program has created," Biehler said. "We've now got an industry that we are cranking up. If we don't keep that pipeline full, what's going to happen on the back side? It's a real concern."

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has emphasized the need for Congress to enact a strong multiyear surface transportation authorization measure promptly.

"We must get serious about finding a long-term funding solution or the nation's highway and transit programs will continue to face crises," said John Horsley, AASHTO executive director. "State DOTs need the certainty a multiyear measure provides to allow them to plan significant projects that will reduce congestion, decrease travel times, lower greenhouse-gas emissions, and create the numerous new jobs that transportation investment generates."