Roadbuilders: Include surface transportation bill in summer schedule

House Republicans should include a new surface transportation bill in their summer schedule, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association said this week.

In a letter to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), dated Thursday, ARTBA CEO Peter Ruane said this week that Cantor, the second highest-ranking Republican in the House, made an omission in his recently released floor schedule for the summer.

"We share your desire to focus on job creating legislation in the coming months," Ruane wrote to Cantor. "Unfortunately, the 'Summer Floor Schedule for America's Job Creators' you released last week omits one of the most significant employment boosting measures pending before Congress — the nearly two-year overdue reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program."

Congress is putting the finishing touches on the first draft of a new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU, transportation bill. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said there would be an early draft of the bill, which funds highways and public transportation, coming soon.

Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has said her version of the bill will be about $339.2 billion

President Obama proposed spending $556 billion over six years on the measure, but lawmakers have indicated they are unlikely to approve anything close to that amount.

The current short-term transportation bill expires in September.