Highways, Bridges and Roads

The Senate majority leader said he would hold firm against GOP demands to include Keystone approval in transportation funding legislation.

The House version of the transportation bill approves a permit for the pipeline, while the Senate bill does not.

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.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

U.S. Airways is attempting to merge with American Airlines during the latter's bankruptcy proceedings.

Transportation officials are alerting motorists to be careful when they're driving near construction sites for National Work Zone Awareness Week.

Former New York Gov. David Paterson is expected to join the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board of directors.

A man was arrested for trying to steal an airplane that was chained to the ground at a California airport.

The next step in House and Senate negotiations over a new multi-year federal highway bill — naming members of a conference committee — could happen as early as this week.

It remains to be seen, however, if lawmakers actually start talking now. The current funding for transportation does not expire until June 30, and the extension that was passed by the House last week by runs until Sept. 30.

The idea is to provide a lot of time for what are expected to be contentious negotiations. The extension approved by the House includes approval of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which will likely not survive the conference.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said mandating the oil pipeline's contruction threatens the highway bill's future.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) encouraged the House Wednesday afternoon to immediately appoint negotiators for a conference about a new federal highway bill with the Senate.

Boxer, who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works, said Wednesday that although the House had again ignored her calls for the lower chamber to accept the Senate's version of the bill to provide road and transit funding, the chamber's approval of a 90-day extension Wednesday should quickly lead to a conference between the two houses of Congress.

“The fact that the House voted to take a step forward on a surface transportation bill is encouraging – as long as they follow through and immediately appoint conferees so that Congress can complete its work and get a bill to the president’s desk," Boxer said in a statement released by her office after Wednesday's vote. 

Defying a veto threat, House Republicans passed legislation extending transportation program funding and mandating construction of the Keystone pipeline.

House Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday indicated that after several years of short-term extensions, they were finally on a path toward passing a long-term highway bill.

Members were considering an extension of federal highway programs through the end of fiscal year 2012. While Democrats have implored Republicans to get to a longer-term bill, they said today they could accept the latest extension as a way to get to a conference with the Senate on a multi-year solution.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said the passing the bill would allow the House to start a conference on a highway bill.