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A Senate committee passed a measure that would permanently allow trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds on Maine and Vermont’s interstate highways.

The truck-weight provisions, authored Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday as part of the 2012 appropriations bill for transportation and housing, Leahy said in a statement.

Similar provisions are not in the House version of the appropriations bill, which a subcommittee passed earlier this month, Collins said.

Maine and Vermont allowed the heavier trucks on their interstates during a year-long pilot that expired in December.