Bipartisan Senate bill would offer a tax credit for transportation projects

Updated May 6, 2015

congress building at nightA Republican and a Democratic crossed party lines to propose a bill Monday that would provide a tax credit for road projects.

The Hill reports Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) proposed the “Move America Act of 2015” as Congress rolls closer to the May 31 deadline to extend transportation funding as the Highway Trust Fund runs out of money.

The bill would provide more tax-exempt bonds and a new tax credit for state and local transportation projects. It’s not a be-all, end-all solution to the infrastructure funding issue facing Congress, but Wyden and Hoeven said it would help state and local governments having trouble funding important transportation projects.

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“Move America will turbocharge investment and give states and localities the flexibility they need to quickly and efficiently break ground on projects,” Wyden said in a statement.

The measure comes as lawmakers struggle to come up with a solution to the transportation funding problem with a deadline that has been looming since the session began.

The Move America Act of 2015 comes less than a week after the House Appropriations Committee introduced a bill to provide funding for a year, as opposed to President Barack Obama’s six-year Grow America proposal. Five Republicans proposed another alternative with the DRIVE Act in March that would support the Highway Trust Fund by cutting local project funding.

Wyden and Hoeven’s bill isn’t the first to come from a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Paul Ryan introduced a $10 billion stopgap measure May 30 with support from Republican and Democratic members of Congress, and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) proposed the Invest in Transportation Act earlier this month.