With an agreement still not in place on a multi-year transportation bill, Congress has approved and President Bush signed into law another short-term extension to keep federal highway and transit programs operating.

The new stopgap, which Bush signed on July 20, runs for only two days. That would serve to keep the pressure on House and Senate conferees who have been meeting to try to work out a deal on the long-delayed, long-term measure.

The House and Senate passed the latest extension during the evening of July 19, hours before the previous stopgap was to expire. The new extension is the ninth such bill enacted since the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century expired on Sept. 30, 2003.