Transportation and Infrastructure

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) predicted on Monday afternoon that an amendment to the highway bill creating a new tax incentive for companies to use natural-gas-powered vehicles will probably not pass the Senate this week.

"This is the first chance to come to the Senate floor and have a vote," Burr said of the amendment. "And you know what? It's probably is not going to pass. That's the disappointing thing of it."

Reid said the Senate would begin considering 30 amendments on Thursday.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday afternoon reiterated the broad Democratic complaint that House Republicans are pursuing a highly partisan transportation bill that breaks a 50-year trend of having both parties work together on federal transportation priorities.

Pelosi briefly outlined the history of past transportation bills, and said these bills have traditionally been legislation in which both parties work together to agree on funding priorities.

"That is, up until now, and that is until this bill," she said. "With the legislation that we are debating today, Republicans put forward the most partisan transportation package in 50 years.

The House on Wednesday afternoon approved a rule allowing members to consider a three-part energy and transportation bill, over the objections of all Democrats and several Republicans who opposed what they saw as a more convoluted process than normal for considering legislation.

Members approved the rule by a 235-186 vote that was mostly along party lines.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) on Wednesday morning criticized House Republicans for pushing a transportation bill this week that would eliminate the Safe Routes to School program, which has given states and local communities millions of dollars in grants to promote safe walking and biking to school.

"This is a wildly popular program, costing a fraction of a percent of the transportation budget, and it's had a huge impact nationally on our children because it deals with real consequences for them," Blumenauer said on the floor.

The House meets at 10 a.m. for speeches, and then at noon to start work on three bills that used to be one: a transportation authorization bill, a bill requiring federal workers to contribute more to their retirement, and a bill encouraging more oil shale production.

House Republicans decided to split the $260 billion transportation bill into three parts after it became clear that the votes weren't there when these provisions were packaged together.

The Senate overwhelmingly voted to end debate on its $109 billion transportation bill Thursday, setting in motion a march toward a final vote on the measure as early as next week.

In an 85-11 vote, the Senate invoked cloture on the measure, which has been dubbed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century bill.

The vote to proceed on the measure on Thursday was expected, but the margin was larger than sponsor Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) predicted in the minutes before lawmakers began casting their ballots.

"Maybe I'm just dreaming here, but I'm hoping for well over 60 votes to go forward," she said.

By the time the voting was finished, Boxer was lauding the bipartisanship that led to the bill winning 85 votes. 

"This is a tremendous vote — to move forward with one of the most important jobs bills we could move in this session," Boxer said. "[T]his is a good vote. Now the true test comes as we have a lot of work to do to complete this legislation, to make it real, to get that certainty out there to get these jobs going."

Boxer warned lawmakers to not offer unnecessary amendments to the bill, saying it could get bogged down in what she called "extraneous matters." 

"Please do not mess up this bill," she said. 

Boxer said she and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, would oppose amendments unless they both agreed they would add to the transportation bill.

The Senate is expected to end debate on the measure, which has support from members in both parties.

The Senate voted 75-20 to approve a bill providing funding for the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Cantor said Senate Democrats have been non-responsive to House Republican proposals for paying for the payroll tax cut extension.