U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx predicts that Congress will again approve a short-term measure to fund the nation’s highway system instead of passing a long-term funding plan.

As previously posted on Conduit Street, congressional transportation authorization expired in 2009.  Since that time, Congress has passed a number of short-term measures to continue funding the trust fund. An article in Better Roads further explains,

When the current MAP-21 legislation expires at the end of May, leaving the Highway Trust Fund depleted, Foxx said it’s likely lawmakers will simply pass the 33rd short-term transportation bill in the last six years.

At the end of March, Foxx sent a revised copy Obama administration’s six-year $478 billion transportation reauthorization bill to Congress. Foxx has stressed the importance of long-term funding due to expectations that the U.S. population will grow by 70 million in the next 30 years.

An $11 billion proposal approved by Congress in 2014 is set to expire on May 31, 2015.