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The U.S. Senate approved a short-term extenstion of transportation funding that averts a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration and will provide continued funding for federal highway programs.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wants an additional $133 billion in highway funding through 2021 as part of its $3.7 trillion plan of tax increases and spending cuts, Bloomberg reported.

House Republicans proposed a six-year, $230 billion highway-funding transportation package that is sharply lower than the level sought by the Obama administration, news services reported.

House Republicans are seeking to cut federal transportation funds to match federal fuel-tax revenue, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

A portion of the Highway Trust Fund would be dedicated exclusively to a national freight highway network under a bipartisan transportation reauthorization plan being drafted by four U.S. senators.

A bipartisan transportation reauthorization bill being prepared by four key United States senators would map out a national network of freight corridors and dedicate a percentage of Highway Trust Fund dollars to road projects within that network, a Senate staff member said.

Four key members of the U.S. Senate unveiled an outline of a bipartisan transportation bill that would authorize about $339 billion in spending over six years, as a move to break the long impasse over highway spending.

The total number of people killed in traffic accidents in the United States in 2010 declined 3% from a year earlier, despite the fact that Americans drove about 20.5 billion more miles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported.

Members of a key House panel began hearing proposals Tuesday from members of Congress about ways to fund a six-year highway reauthorization bill without exceeding Highway Trust Fund revenues that are mostly derived from federal gas and diesel taxes.