Following nearly two years of negotiations and 12 extensions of TEA-21 since the transportation law originally expired September 30, 2003, the House and Senate both passed compromise surface transportation legislation and President Bush signed the bill into law on August 10, 2005.

Following House passage March 10 of a six-year bill that would provide $284 billion for the federal surface transportation program and Senate passage May 17 of a six-year, $295 billion TEA-21 Reauthorization bill—a 93-member House-Senate conference committee worked to reconcile the differences between the two bills and reach a compromise with the White House—which had threatened to veto both the House and Senate-approved bills.  Once a compromise was reached in late July 2005, the House passed the final conference report of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) by a vote of 412-8 and the Senate passed the final version by a vote of 91-4.

The new law authorizes $286.4 billion for highways, public transportation and road safety programs through FY2009.  This is a 30 percent increase over TEA-21.  Specifically, SAFETEA-LU provides $226.2 billion for highways and $52.2 billion for public transportation.  The law also includes almost $20 billion in high priority and discretionary program projects.  

SAFETEA-LU guarantees every state a minimum of 92 cents per dollar sent to the federal government by 2008.  This is an improvement from the 90.5 cent minimum return in TEA-21.  The new law also improves transportation project delivery by ensuring better coordination among state departments of transportation and federal permitting agencies.