The Senate has plowed into another logjam in the highway funding boondoggle.
A breaking news story from The Bond Buyer newspaper says that States will not receive highway payments from the federal government starting Monday because of the Senate’s inability to clear a temporary extension of federal aid to states, although payments may resume next week.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials calculated that the halted payments would cost states $2 billion per month.
States have been receiving reimbursements for construction costs from the federal highway trust fund as the result of a short-term extension of the current transportation law, which expired Sept. 30, 2009. The latest extension expires at the end of this month, which is Sunday, and the Senate finished its business for the week before approving a new 30-day extension that was included in a bill to extend unemployment benefits.
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., blocked the bill on the grounds that it would add to the federal budget deficit.
