Senate ready to pass highway program overhaul
WASHINGTON — The Senate is ready to pass long-delayed legislation overhauling America’s highway and transit systems, with lawmakers steering past partisan fights that have kept it sidelined.
The measure, now set for a floor vote today, would give states more flexibility in how they spend federal money and would step up the pace of road construction by shortening environmental reviews. Even the measure’s sponsors — California Democrat Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe — come from opposite political poles. Passage would provide a rare display of bipartisan deal-making between the parties in a bitterly partisan election year.
