Do you remember as a kid the ubiquitous summer road trip to see America’s treasures that your parents insisted would be great fun and educational? My family would pack up the old Ford station wagon and head out of southern California to destinations north—sometimes along the coast and other times inland to the Sierra Nevada mountains. Regardless of the destination and detours along the way, the most frequent question on the trip came from my brother or me asking my dad and mom, “Are we there yet?”

So far, the journey of Congress passing an infrastructure bill has been much like a family summer vacation with delays, detours and roadblocks along the way, leaving us asking the same thing. Perhaps the better question is, “Do we know where we’re going?” (Or I could pose the question, “Are we lost?”)

The big roadblock to passing any significant highway or broader infrastructure bill has been how to find the necessary funds to pay for the programs.

The journey to develop a highway and infrastructure bill began in early 2017 with President Trump’s first State of the Union address, as infrastructure was one of his policy priorities for his administration. Republican and Democrat leadership in Congress agreed that highway and infrastructure projects should be a priority. With the itinerary set and agreement on the destination, one would think this would be a smooth road trip. But somewhere along the way, Washington took a few unexpected side trips and stops and is now trying to get back on the road to its destination.

The years 2017 and 2018 brought many detours and roadblocks—from investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 elections, repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, to the catastrophic 2017 hurricane season that brought hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria within weeks of each other. Other obstacles and diversions included the Senate confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, border and immigration issues and the longest shutdown of the federal government in history at the end of 2018 and into 2019.

After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2019, it appeared there might be a chance to get this road trip back on track and headed to our destination. House leadership listed infrastructure legislation as one of its top three policy priorities, and House committees began holding hearings and some committee work was being done on infrastructure, though the highway portion of the bill appeared to be moving more slowly.

In the Senate, real progress was made. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee marked up its highway authorization bill and passed it out of committee with bipartisan support before it recessed for the summer break in August 2019. Unfortunately, what momentum that had been gained to get a Senate floor vote stalled in September with the House launching its impeachment inquiry and investigation of the president. The impeachment hearings and votes in the House and then the subsequent trial in the Senate in effect stalled not only the infrastructure bill but almost all other legislative activity until the first quarter of 2020. Just as it appeared the legislative process was getting back on track, the coronavirus pandemic essentially shut down Congress, along with the rest of the country.

Does this mean our road trip is over? Can we get back on the road and keep moving to our destination? As Congress tried to get back to its legislative business in a new normal, one of the first non-COVID-19-related bills that the House worked on was the infrastructure bill. In June, the first committee markup to take place using virtual technology was the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee when it marked up its highway authorization bill. The bill was added to a larger infrastructure package that included investments in broadband technology, water and housing projects, clean energy projects and other climate-related projects, and many other infrastructure-related programs and projects. Before the Independence Day holiday weekend, the bill passed the House on mostly a party-line vote.

The House and Senate have two very distinct versions of what an infrastructure bill should look like.

It is now August, so where are we on this legislative quest? Some may argue that Congress took a wrong turn in the desert and can’t find their way back to the highway. Others might say we’ve hit traffic and just need to find another route. And, more optimistic folks will say adding these few extra detours just adds to the adventure.

A few factors to keep in mind. First, time. It’s an election year, and there are not many days in the legislative calendar. With new floor procedures and health and safety protocols in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, it takes more time to conduct legislative business, such as markups, hearings and votes.

Second, scope. The House and Senate have two very distinct visions of what an infrastructure bill should look like. The Senate has only marked up a highway bill, not a larger infrastructure package like what passed the House. Even if the Senate attaches other infrastructure-related bipartisan bills, such as its water resources bill or an energy bill, the House bill is much broader and heavily laden with climate and carbon reduction programs. So, if the time challenge is overcome, a conference committee to negotiate differences in the two bills will be complicated.

Finally, cost. The biggest roadblock to passing any significant highway or broader infrastructure bill has always been how to find the necessary funds to pay for these programs. The Highway Trust Fund is unable to keep pace with the need to maintain and grow our interstate and roads system. A stable and consistent long-term funding stream is necessary but difficult to find agreement on a solution.

So, at the end of the year, will we find ourselves, like the Griswold family in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” finally reaching Wally World, racing across an empty parking lot, only to find the amusement park closed, or will Congress find a way through these detours and misadventures and finish its legislative road trip?