As the House version of a new transportation bill to reauthorize and reform the current federal transportation law, which expires at the end of September, remains in the House, the Senate has made two significant moves in the past week to postpone the debate for a new law.

As President Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill in Denver on Tuesday, it released the biggest influx of federal dollars since the Great Society program of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Unlike LBJ, President Obama – working with less of a Democratic majority – ultimately had to make significant concessions to Congressional moderates and Republicans to pass the bill.