Senate Passes Transportation Bill

The Senate has passed the Transportation Bill with a vote of 74 to 22 with special language as part of the Managers’ Amendment regarding the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF). This language is essentially a Sense of the Senate placeholder for the HMTF point of order language.

“Because most of the controversial Senate floor amendment votes on that bill were required to meet a 60-vote threshold to pass we opted to not risk losing such a vote on the point of order amendment and to instead negotiate a placeholder with the EPW committee” said Barry Holliday of the Dredging Contractors of America who has been organizing dredging industry support for the legislation.

“Senator Inhofe initially resisted including any HMTF provision in the bill but he eventually accepted the attached language. We are hopeful that the House will include some form of HMTF provision in its transportation bill as well and that this will provide an opportunity to improve the language in conference” said Holliday.