Star:

The Surface Transportation Authorization Act typically covers a 5-year window, and has to be replaced ("reauthorized") at that time. The new bill was passed out of the House committee last June, but it currently only covers policy issues, there's no funding or budget attached to it yet. And that's the rub -- the federal Highway Trust Fund is quickly going broke, and there's no kind of agreement yet on how to replenish and sustain it. For now, the old act, SAFETEA-LU, is being extended pretty much on a month-by-month basis.

We were at the National Bike Summit in DC last week, and the frustration in the current Congress is so thick you can see it hanging in the hallways like fog...

Tom