Pick your culprit for why the current extension of the SAFETEA-LU highway funding bill was allowed to expire without reauthorization last night—U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) or the House of Representatives collectively.  Regardless of whoever ultimately gets the blame—or the credit when the issue is fixed via legislation-- the upshot for now  is that  both federal safety enforcement of the trucking  industry and ongoing highway projects in many states have been disrupted.

Bunning is on the hot seat for preventing the Senate via a parliamentary maneuver from considering the extension bill. Bunning has demanded that before he will take his hold off, offsetting spending cuts must be included in the underlying legislation so as to cut deficit spending. On the other hand, the House could take up and vote on the Senate-passed “Jobs Bill” AKA the HIRE Act and send it to the President for signing.

For his part, Secy. of Transportation Ray LaHood  placed the blame squarely on Bunning in statements released this morning. “I am sorry to report that DOT will furlough nearly 2,000 employees without pay Monday,” stated LaHood. “I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country. This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed.

“This means DOT must temporarily shut down highway reimbursements to states worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” LaHood stated. “This means we must temporarily shut down national anti-drunk driving efforts. And this means we must shut down construction projects across the country… And when those projects shut down, and the states don't get their highway reimbursements, what will happen then?”

LaHood went on to say that “we came to this…because one Senator blocked the extension of the Highway Trust Fund. And not just the Highway Trust Fund extension. Other provisions in the same legislation would have covered tax credits for health coverage and unemployment.”

Regardless of whoever ultimately gets the blame—or the credit if the issue is resolved via Senate or  House legislation-- the upshot for now  is that  the federal safety enforcement of the trucking  industry could be halted and the funding of ongoing highway projects in many states has already been disrupted.

And unless this already “old” issue of highway bill reauthorization  is resolved within days or perhaps a week or two at most, the negative ripple effect – especially on highway repairs and construction— conceivably could be felt by fleet owners and the motoring public in general for years to come.

"It's a shame that we have to go through this," Steve Keppler, interim executive director for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), told FleetOwner. "Safety is about as critical a government service as there is, so we hope Congress can in the end solve this quickly."

According to Kepler, FMCSA provides roughly $2 million a day to the states to directly fund truck and bus enforcement efforts. He said that it is expected-- at least for the time being-- thatstates will be allowed to continue incurring expenses for enforcement efforts.

FMCSA also has teams of inspectors conducting compliance reviews and safety audits with fleet directly. Since they are considered critical personnel, some -- but not all -- of those federal employees should be able to continue their work despite the funding stoppage, said Keppler.