Senate names conferees for highway bill

The Senate announced its conferees for resolving differences between the House and Senate version of a highway funding extension bill.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), David Vitter (R-La.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) will be the Senate conference chairmen to resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions of the highway funding extension bill. The House version, H.R. 4348, is a simple extension of existing transportation funding while the Senate bill, S. 1813, funds highway programs for two years with $109 billion.

The House is expected to appoint conferees sometime later in the week.

A day earlier, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) issued strong criticism aimed at House Republicans for failing to pass a long-term federal highway program funding bill.

A week earlier the House passed a short-term extension that goes through the end of the year. Whitehouse called the short-term extension "job-killers" and said that the House should have been able to pass a longer-term extension.

---