The U.S. House has sent the highway funding bill on to the Senate for consideration, a bill that includes a fix to crop insurance cuts that were included in last month’s budget deal. The House voted 359 to 65 on Thursday to advance the bill that will reverse a $3 billion cut to crop insurance. The cuts were part of a budget agreement passed last month that was not allowed amendments. However, Congressional leadership vowed at the time to fix the cuts later in the year. The Senate was expected to take up the deal as early as Thursday evening.
The bill, formally known as H.R. 22, the conference report on the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act, authorizes $305 billion in spending. It is the first five-year transportation authorization bill in more than 10 years and received support from key farm groups due to its basic provisions, which are important to rural America, and for its crop insurance provision, according to the Hagstrom Report.