Dear  

The House of Representatives has announced plans to return to Harrisburg during the week of August 4. House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) indicated plans for the House to conduct a rare summer voting session that week to consider various pieces of legislation, including the authorization of a $2 per pack cigarette tax in the City of Philadelphia to help provide funding to the Philadelphia school district (HB 1177).

The Senate adjourned for its summer recess on July 9, with plans to return to session on Sept. 15. There has been no announced change to that schedule as a result of the House plans.

Recent media reports have indicated that Gov. Corbett is still considering his options with regard to his priority for pension reform. Citing the lack of action in the House and Senate, the Governor blue-lined a number of legislative appropriations before signing the FY 2014-2015 Commonwealth budget into law on July 10. He also struck some provisions in the Fiscal Code legislation, HB 278, a bill that provides instructions on implementation of provisions of the budget. The blue-lining by the Governor remains a point of contention between the legislature and Governor.

On July 15, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a short-term fix to continue funding the Highway Trust Fund through May 31, 2015. Revenue collected from the federal gas tax funds the Highway Trust Fund, but the Fund can no longer sustain infrastructure costs, which total close to $50 billion per year. In addition, MAP-21, the current federal surface transportation law, is set to expire Sept. 30, 2014, with the U.S. Department of Transportation slated to cut construction spending by 28 percent on Aug. 1, which would cause states to stop or delay thousands of projects.

The House proposal, H.R. 5021, would transfer nearly $11 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, with $9.9 billion from the general fund and another $1 billion from a separate fund set up to deal with leaking underground storage tanks. The measure passed the House by a 367-55 vote. The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee in May unanimously approved S. 2322, legislation that would provide a six-year reauthorization of MAP-21, but media reports have speculated on whether a multi-year reauthorization would get any traction in an election year, and members of Congress have said while they preferred a long-term bill they did not want to see the Highway Trust Fund run out of money. As such, the Senate has indicated its plans to consider H.R. 5021, before the August recess.