Thursday, the House passed a six year transportation funding bill on a 363 to 64 vote. The next step is to resolve the measure with an earlier one passed by the Senate. South Dakota Congresswoman Kristi Noem says their bill gives state’s certainty for their highway and bridge projects going forward.
Noem says the difficult part in coming to agreement on the legislation was finding a way to pay for it.
She says the Senate’s transportation funding plan is different than the one they came up with in the House.
The House bill is financed with a collection of offsets such as raising $ 9 billion by selling oil from the country’s oil reserves. Close to $ 2.5 billion comes from requiring the Internal Revenue Service to use private debt collectors. Higher gas taxes are not part of the package.