President signs bill to extend highway funding through Dec. 4

President Barack Obama signed into law Friday, Nov. 20, a bill to extend highway funding for two weeks.

The House of Representatives passed the bill Tuesday, Nov. 17, and the Senate passed it Thursday, Nov. 19.

The short-term patch — the fifth this calendar year and sixth since last May — extends current highway funding levels to Dec. 4. But this latest short-term patch could be the last for some time: Lawmakers are on the last leg of negotiations to push a long-term surface transportation funding package through Congress and send the bill to the president.

A dozen Senators and 28 Representatives have been delegated to a bicameral conference committee tasked with producing a multi-year bill both chambers can agree to. Both the Senate and the House have passed long-term bills this year, though the two bills, while similar, are not the same. It’s the conference committee’s job to reconcile the differences and bring a uniform bill back to their respective chambers.