Despite a long-term extension of highway funding being among the top priorities for Congress in July, federal lawmakers could only pass a three-month stopgap bill before the August recess.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) notes his chamber did pass a six-year funding plan on Thursday, which marks the 34th time Congress has passed only a short-term fix since the last long-term funding plan was approved in 2005.
Durbin hopes the House approves the Senate legislation when it returns to Washington in September, but a sticking point may be a measure in the bill which reauthorizes the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The bank, which provides loans to U.S. companies looking to do business overseas, had its charter lapse earlier this year, and conservative Republicans have vowed not to vote to renew it.
Congress won’t be back in session until September 8.
In other state news, a new exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum focuses on what was termed, at the time, another minority group.
“With Firmness in the Right: Lincoln and the Jews” tells a story that many might not know, according to Daniel Stowell, author of “The Papers of Abraham Lincoln.”
The exhibit includes a feature on Abraham Jonas — an attorney from Quincy described as Lincoln’s most valued friend.
The exhibit opens TODAY.
