Highways, Bridges and Roads

The conference between the House and Senate on a new federal highway bill will begin in earnest this week, as negotiators hold their first meeting Tuesday.

The lawmakers will begin with a two-year, $109 billion bill that was approved by the Senate and a pair of House-passed short-term extensions of the current law that authorizes continued funding for road and transit projects.

Many observers, including Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, have said it is doubtful that Congress will pass a multi-year bill before this year’s elections. However, some supporters of the Senate’s version of the measure are hoping unemployment numbers released last week showing 17,000 transportation jobs had been lost in April will spur lawmakers on the conference committee to find consensus.

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The Keystone XL oil sands pipeline is looming over this week’s launch of House-Senate talks on transportation legislation.
 
The first formal session of the bicameral panel trying to hash out a final bill arrives Tuesday afternoon.
 
The House version of the transportation and infrastructure bill approves the pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries, while the Senate’s plan omits the provision.
 
Keystone advocates on Capitol Hill, backed by an intense lobbying campaign from oil and business groups, will push for the pipeline to make the final cut.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Employees at Los Angeles International Airport went on strike to commemorate May Day.

Landmines were confiscated from a passenger at Newark's Liberty International Airport.

American Airlines lost $807 million in March during it bankruptcy proceedings.

The site of a fatal minivan accident in New York City near the Bronx Zoo had been identified as one of New York's most dangerous roads.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) on Monday released a letter they sent to all members of the Illinois congressional delegation in an apparent attempt to convince them to support passage of a Senate-passed bill.

Their letter reviewed House and Senate work on a highway bill, and noted that the Senate approved a bipartisan bill, while a proposed House bill, H.R. 7, "drew significant opposition and many of you also opposed the bill because of its negative impact on the transportation network in Illinois."

It used to be easy for Congress to agree on passing a bill for new transportation spending, President Obama argued in a speech to a construction union Monday.

Lawmakers in the House and the Senate have agreed to hold conference negotiations on a new funding bill for road and transit projects, but most observers do not expect any more than continuing resolutions of the current funding mechanism to become law before elections in November.

In a speech to the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, Obama argued Monday that the House should accept the Senate's version of the transportation bill — a two-year, $109 billion measure he said was "ready to go, ready to put folks back to work." 

"As we speak, the House Republicans are refusing to pass a bipartisan bill that could guarantee work for millions of construction workers," the president said before lamenting the lack of progress thus far in congressional negotiations on the highway bill.

"The easiest bill to pass in Washington used to be getting roads and bridges built, because it’s not like only Democrats are allowed to use these things," Obama continued. "Everybody is permitted. Everybody needs them." 

President Obama on Monday slammed Speaker John Boehner and the House Republican leadership for the second time in a week.

The panel of lawmakers tapped to hammer out an agreement on a new federal transportation bill will hold its first meeting next month, a key member of the committee said Thursday.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the transportation conference committee would meet Tuesday, May 8. Boxer, who is chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, shepherded the Senate's two-year, $109 billion transportation bill through the upper chamber earlier this year.

Boxer said she is eager to begin negotiations on the bill with the House, though the lower chamber has only passed a pair of temporary extensions of current highway funding through Sept. 30.

"I am sure that every member of the conference, Democrat or Republican, House or Senate, understands how critical it is to swiftly pass a comprehensive transportation bill that is a deficit neutral, reform measure that will preserve or create millions of jobs and thousands of businesses," Boxer said in a statement released by her office.

House leaders on Wednesday evening announced 33 conferees to the federal highway bill, who could begin meeting with their Senate counterparts as early as this week.

Twenty of the 33 are Republicans: Reps. John Mica (Fla.), Don Young (Alaska), John Duncan (Tenn.), Bill Shuster (Pa.), Shelley Moore Capito (W-Va.), Rick Crawford (Ark.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.), Larry Buschon (Ind.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Steve Southerland (Fla.), James Lankford (Okla.), Reid Ribble (Wis.), Fred Upton (Mich.), Ed Whitfield (Ky.), Doc Hastings (Wash.), Rob Bishop (Utah), Ralph Hall (Texas), Chip Cravaack (Minn.), Dave Camp (Mich.) and Patrick Tiberi (Ohio).

The House voted on Wednesday to meet with the Senate to negotiate a bill funding federal highway programs.

Members approved a motion to go to conference with the Senate on the highway bill by unanimous consent, setting up what could be several weeks of discussions with the Senate.

The House meets at 10 a.m. for speeches, then at 1 p.m. for work on a few bills, plus a motion to proceed to conference on the highway funding bill, H.R. 4348.

The Senate approved its conferees on Tuesday, after rejecting the House's short-term extension of federal highway funding in favor of its own two-year bill. The House will have to pass a motion to go to conference with the Senate, and soon thereafter will name conferees.