House vote backs highways, transit

Lawmakers also approve money for veterans’ care.

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to shore up federal highway aid and veterans’ health care before heading out of town for its August recess, leaving unresolved an array of sticky issues that are sure to complicate an autumn agenda already crowded with issues.

In one of their last decisions before adjourning for a month, the House by 385-34 backed a bill that would extend spending authority for transportation programs through Oct. 29, and replenish the federal Highway Trust Fund with $8 billion.

The Senate plans to take up the House bill before a Friday deadline.

Lawmakers said they were loath to take up yet another short-term transportation funding extension — this will be the 34th since 2009. But Republicans and Democrats don’t want to see transportation aid cut off, and they were eager to pass an amendment attached to the extension bill that fills a $3.4 billion hole in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget.

On the fall agenda, 12 annual spending bills face a Sept. 30 deadline but are being held up by a clash over an effort to ban the Confederate flag from some federal cemeteries. Congress must also decide whether to approve or disapprove President Barack Obama’s Iran deal, and whether to pass a contentious defense policy bill that faces a veto threat from the White House. Another fight is certain over raising the nation’s borrowing authority.