The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently announced a markup session for its transportation reauthorization bill on Wednesday, November 9 at 10:00 a.m. EST. As defined on the Senate's website, a markup session is the "process by which a congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation."

The Committee Chair and the Ranking Member released an outline of the reauthorization proposal in July. Referred to as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the two-year bill would maintain funding at current levels, consolidate programs, increase federal credit assistance through an expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, promote accelerated project delivery, and increase the use of performance measures in transportation decision making.

An earlier Policy Update blog compared the MAP-21 outline to its counterpart in the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. On November 1, 2011, U.S. Representative Dan Lipinski sent a letter to House Speaker Boehner urging support for a "robust multi-year transportation bill." A related press release quotes CMAP Board chairman Gerald Bennett, mayor of Palos Hills. See also CMAP's transportation reauthorization principles.