A look back at an interview with then-ranking minority leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. John Mica (R., Fla.), as he is set to take over as Chair next year.

The transportation bill -- the massive legislation authorizing and funding the country’s roads and mass-transit infrastructure (from highways to bus lanes to railways to bike lanes) -- expires every six years. That, however, does not mean a new bill is passed every six-years. It’s Washington, D.C., after all. Come along with Blueprint America correspondent Miles O'Brien as he talks to people on Capitol Hill about how the transportation bill becomes a law.

At midnight Wednesday, the federal transportation law funding national highway and transit programs expired. Amid a lack of consensus in Congress on what to do—as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has been at odds with both the Senate and the Obama Administration—the current law was extended for one-month. However, it is a short-term fix.

Every six years the law authorizing national transportation policy and funding needs renewal. The current law expires Sept. 30 -- in nine days.

With Congress back after a summer recess, President Barack Obama, in an address before both the House and Senate on Wednesday, again made clear that the government’s business at this moment is health care reform. As a result, major climate legislation has been delayed twice in the Senate by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. At the same time, similar legislation in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- a $450 billion bill to overhaul transportation funding and policy nationally -- has not been put off, at least by Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D., Minn.).

In April, before the House transportation bill was introduced, Rep. Jim Oberstar (D., Minn.), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, talked with Blueprint America about the legislation.

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.

An 18-month extension of the existing transportation law cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week. As the Senate, for the most part, falls in line with the Obama Administration, bipartisan support for the new bill remains significant.

In May, the Secretary of Transportation talked with Blueprint America for the Road to the Future documentary on PBS. Sec. LaHood's comments illustrate that the Administration wants transportation reform, but just not now -- especially if it means raising the gas tax in these economic times.

The Monday Metro accident in Washington, D.C., when a train car rear-ended another killing nine people, involved some of the oldest cars in the city’s young subway system. The cars had already been said to have vulnerabilities. Washington, however, is not the exception for using equipment that is outdated.

Chairman Jim Oberstar (D., MN) and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released the full 775-page Transportation Bill text.