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Key transportation priorities have remained sidelined with lawmakers deadlocked in a funding standoff over the Department of 91��Ƶland Security.

Funding for several other agencies, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Treasury and Education, could become a casualty of the dispute as a Jan. 30 funding deadline nears.

LaMalfa was a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he sought to repeal the 12% federal excise tax on certain commercial vehicles.

“We have done hard things before. With this committee’s guidance, and in partnership with labor and industry, we can do them again," Maritime Administrator Stephen Carmel told senators.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune urges lawmakers to focus on long-term funding, a move that could preclude another shutdown by dispelling a recent habit of extending short-term measures.

Bills meant to expand access to truck parking as well as enhance the safety of the nation’s pipeline system await consideration in the transportation policy and funding panels.

The transportation panel in the U.S. House of Representatives recently reviewed proposals from its colleagues as a way to inform an upcoming multiyear highway policy measure.

“This will be a collaborative process in which the committee will solicit feedback from both members and stakeholders,” Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said during a hearing Jan. 15.

The bill would ease veterans’ ability to use GI Bill benefits to pursue commercial driving careers.

A committee in the House of Representatives easily approved a bill meant to facilitate commercial drivers’ access to security credentials.