Senate Dem leaders claim progress on foundering highway bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested Wednesday afternoon that recent backroom negotiations have yielded some progress on the pending surface transportation bill.

“We have made some progress in working to an end to the issues preventing us from moving forward on this bill,” said Reid from the floor. “There is enough importance in this bill to do just that.”

As has become routine in the Senate lately, senators from both parties have complicated the bill, which enjoys broad support, by offering more than 100 unrelated, controversial amendments, such as one that would repeal the Obama administration’s recent contraceptive decision, an amendment to stop foreign aid to Egypt, and another regarding abortion.

Reid also took defensive steps to ensure he is the one who decides which amendments will receive votes by offering a number of his own amendments in a process commonly known as “filling the tree.”

Chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) joined Reid on the floor Wednesday, lashing out at Republicans for their dilatory tactics that have put the bill’s future in doubt.

“It’s hard to find the words, except to say… ‘What are you thinking?’ ” she said referring to the non-germane amendments.

Boxer went on to invoke the memory of Americans killed on unsafe roads, and pledged to push forward despite frustrating developments.

“I am going to do it in the name of people who didn’t make it because they were on unsafe roads,” she said. “Republicans use the roads. Democrats use the roads. We all want to be safe.”

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