[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2635 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2635

  To amend title 23, United States Code, to increase flexibility for 
           emergency relief projects, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 31, 2025

Mr. Padilla (for himself and Mr. Cornyn) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and 
                              Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 23, United States Code, to increase flexibility for 
           emergency relief projects, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Transportation Emergency Relief 
Extension Act''.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL-AID HIGHWAY EMERGENCY RELIEF.

    Section 125 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
    ``(h) Imposition of Deadline.--
            ``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        law, the Secretary may not require any project funded under 
        this section to advance to the construction obligation stage 
        before the date that is the last day of the sixth fiscal year 
        after the later of--
                    ``(A) the date on which the Governor declared the 
                emergency, as described in subsection (d)(1)(A); and
                    ``(B) the date on which the President declared the 
                emergency to be a major disaster, as described in that 
                subsection.
            ``(2) Extension of deadline.--If the Secretary imposes a 
        deadline for advancement to the construction obligation stage 
        pursuant to paragraph (1), the Secretary may--
                    ``(A) on the request of the Governor of the State, 
                issue an extension of not more than 1 year to complete 
                the advancement; and
                    ``(B) issue additional extensions after the 
                expiration of any extension, if the Secretary 
                determines the Governor of the State has provided 
                suitable justification to warrant such an extension.
    ``(i) Emergency Relief Manuals.--Not later than 2 years after the 
date of enactment of this subsection and every 2 years thereafter, the 
Secretary shall--
            ``(1) update the Emergency Relief Manual of the Federal 
        Highway Administration;
            ``(2) provide the updated Manual to each State department 
        of transportation; and
            ``(3) make the updated Manual publicly available on a 
        website of the Secretary.''.
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