National Corn Grower leaders are calling on Congress to go further than the House did last week when they passed only a short term extension of the federal Highway Bill. That measures expires July 31. Minnesota Corn Grower’s President Bruce Peterson says a major problem for many states like Minnesota is roads and bridges need major upkeep. He says when they become unusable farmers have to travel miles out of the way to get their goods to market and that becomes costly.

Peterson says cost of not doing proper upkeep has been rising and Congress must pass a long term funding bill before this infrastructure is beyond fixing.

Peterson says another problem is this year’s state legislature failed to approve a highway bill of their own.