Sunshine Sentinel

The 30-day extension Congress approved last weekend to fund the federal highway program is staving off — for now — what Gov. Ron DeSantis called "the impacts congressional inaction and dysfunction" were starting to have on Florida transportation projects.

The extension was approved Saturday, Oct. 2, ending 3,700 Department of Transportation employee furloughs after the U.S. House didn't pass the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that already has passed the Senate, CNN reported.

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Executive Director Jim Tymon | facebook.com/AASHTOspeaks/

As an almost last-minute act before adjourning on Friday, Oct. 1, the House passed the temporary extension, which was taken up and passed in the Senate the following day.

The House failure on Friday to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was just "disappointing," American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Executive Director Jim Tymon said.

"It lapses our highway, transit and highway safety programs and halts work on vital transportation infrastructure around the country, which is detrimental to our economy and the quality of life of our communities," Tymon said in a statement issued shortly after the House adjourned. "We are dealing with very real repercussions. Thousands of federal employees at USDOT are being furloughed and $50 billion of federal surface transportation programs supported by the Highway Trust Fund are being suspended. This is unacceptable."

In Florida, DeSantis said in his own statement the same day that as "Congress continues to fail to do its job," federal highway projects were endangered, including those in the Sunshine State.

"Yet again, the delays in Washington are impacting the lives of Floridians," DeSantis said in his own statement the same day. "It is unacceptable that Congress or the Biden Administration would use highway construction as a bargaining chip and leave Florida taxpayers to foot the bill. This is even more proof that the Democrats in leadership don’t want to help people, they don’t want to get anything done, they just want to follow a political agenda."