Republicans and Democrats in Congress teamed up to send President Barack Obama a five-year, $305 billion U.S. highway funding plan despite some lawmakers’ misgivings that it would be paid for in part by cuts in Federal Reserve dividend payments to large banks, Bloomberg News reported.

The bill, passed 83-16 by the Senate Thursday night, also revives the U.S. Export-Import Bank, whose charter lawmakers had allowed to expire on June 30. The House passed the highway measure 359-65 earlier in the day.

Obama will sign the bill, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who on Wednesday called the measure a “real step forward.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the plan was the longest-term highway funding bill to pass Congress in almost two decades.

"After years of inaction, this Senate took bipartisan action to meaningfully improve our roads and infrastructure over the coming years," McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. "This bill will finally provide state and local governments with the kind of certainty they need to focus on longer-term road and bridge projects. That’s a significant department from years of short-term extensions."

Voting against the bill were 14 Republicans and two Democrat.

In the wake of a rash of deadly auto-safety defects, the package would also increase the maximum civil penalty for motor-safety violations to $105 million per incident from $35 million and give whistleblowers an incentive to report defects by allowing them to receive at least 10% of monetary penalties for cases exceeding $1 million, depending on the kind of information shared with authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also would increase, with almost $1 billion for safety programs over five years.

The legislation also restores $3 billion in cuts to the Federal Crop Insurance Program, which took place as part of a bipartisan budget agreement in October.

The cuts would have led to a drastic reduction of services in the crop insurance marketplace, including the possible consolidation or elimination of some crop insurance companies, according the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.

“Jeopardizing the program and its delivery system would have left farmers without adequate risk management tools to protect their land and their investments. This would have opened the door to additional taxpayer exposure should disaster strike,” said Charles Symington, the groups senior vice president of external and government affairs.

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$305 billion highway funding bill heads to Obama's desk

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