The Senate voted Nov. 1 to approve a $182 billion appropriations minibus bill that includes DOT. The bill passed by a bipartisan margin of 69-30, with one senator voting present.

The term “minibus” refers to legislation that could be considered a smaller version of an omnibus bill because it covers appropriations for several agencies instead of the entire federal government.

Congress will now proceed to the next step, which is to appoint a conference committee that will reconcile differences between the version of the bill that passed the House and the bill as amended and passed by the Senate.

This bill started as the agriculture appropriations bill, becoming a minibus when funding for Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Justice, and Science were added. It is the first of two expected minibus bills.

Also, the Senate still has other appropriations bills up for consideration that could affect funding for public transportation agencies. One likely to affect public transit funding is the Homeland Security appropriations, which has already passed the House.

However, action on the minibus bill must be taken by Nov. 18, the date on which the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires. If passage is not achieved by that date, Congress must implement another short-term CR. This will keep these areas of the government funded until the conference committee can reconcile differences in the legislation and send the final bill to the president for his signature.

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