Highways, Bridges and Roads

A key member of the committee of lawmakers negotiating a new transportation spending bill said Monday evening that Congress may have to pass a temporary funding extension even if they reach a bicameral compromise.

“We may have to get an extension of a week or so because you have to write everything up,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), who is chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 

Rockefeller said lawmakers are seeking to come to an agreement as soon as late Monday night. He said he was more optimistic than he had been at other points during the two-month negotiation between the 47-member House-Senate conference committee.

“Yesterday I would have said no chance of getting it done. Today I would say [there’s a] chance of getting it done,” said Rockefeller , who said there has been “give on both sides.”

“I now for the first time think that we have a good chance of getting a bill,” he said in the Capitol Monday evening.

Ben Geman has more, including details on negotiations about the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline’s inclusion in the transportation bill, in Overnight Energy on The Hill’s E-2 Wire. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested the Senate could stay in session into the weekend in order to pass a number of pending bills.

Bicycle advocates in Washington are worried that the path to a possible deal in Congress on a transportation spending bill this week will involve throwing them under the bus.

The Senate's version of the transportation bill, a two-year, $109 billion measure, included funding for bike paths and sidewalks through programs like the Federal Highway Administration's Safe Routes to School. However, the provision was not included in a pair of temporarily funding extensions that was approved by the House.

As the chambers bear down on a possible bicameral deal in their final week of negotiations before a June 30 deadline, the America Bikes coalition is concerned their language will be tossed over the handle bars by senators who are anxious for a deal.  

"By giving states the ability to opt out, they are taking away local government’s ability to opt in," America Bikes spokeswoman Mary Lauran Hall said in an email Monday of a suggestion of a possible compromise on the language between the House and Senate.

Negotiations in Congress about a new transportation spending bill are entering their final week, with both sides having something to gain and plenty to lose.

With the outcome of negotiations between staff members in the House and Senate over the weekend yet unclear, the week will end with either a bicameral compromise or a 10th extension of the transportation bill that was supposed to expire in 2009.

If there is not enough movement for lawmakers to announce an agreement by Monday or Tuesday, the theory goes, the months-long negotiations will have to culminate in yet another temporary extension.

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Existing transportation funding will expire at the end of June without a new bill or an extension.

“There’s no excuse for inaction,” Obama said of pending transportation and student loan legislation.

A Republican member of the committee of lawmakers that is conferencing on a new transportation bill responded to a call from House Democrats to avoid raiding a trust fund for land and water conservation by saying the fund had no money to take.

A group of 150 Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to highway conference committee leaders Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) this week asking them to preserve a provision in the Senate's version of the transportation bill that provides money for the land and water conservation trust fund until September of 2013.

But Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said in a statement provided to the The Hill that the money could be better spent on transportation projects that are normally funded by the highway bill. 

“The reality is that money isn’t being taken from LWCF to pay for transportation," Bishop said. "There is no money to fund the LWCF in the first place." 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Republicans on Thursday of holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress to distract voters from issues like negotiations over a new transportation spending bill.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted Wednesday along party lines to place Holder in contempt in a fight over Department of Justice and White House documents about a gun-tracking operation known as "Fast and Furious."

Calling the vote to place Holder in contempt "shameful display of abuse of power by the Republicans in the House of Representatives," Pelosi accused GOP lawmakers of using the fight with the attorney general as a "diversion" from pending issues that need to be resolved by the end of the month.

"What you see is [a] diversion, diversionary tactics," Pelosi said during a news conference at the Capitol. "Let's not talk about the transportation bill, which is only nine days until it expires. Student loans, which is only nine days until the interest rates -- the lower interest rate will expire. Instead of bringing job creating -- creating legislation to the floor, the transportation bill, they are holding the attorney general of the United States in contempt of Congress for doing his job."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that "clearly there's some movement" in negotiations in Congress about a new transportation spending bill.

Asked during a news conference for an update on the bicameral negotiations, which are coming down to the wire because of a June 30 deadline for the expiration of the current funding for road and transit projects, Boehner said lawmakers were "continuing to do our work" on the highway conference.

"I met with the the Republican conferees today on the highway bill. They've been heavily engaged," he said. "And clearly there's some movement that's been under way since the meeting I had with Sen. [Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] and Sen. [Barbara] Boxer [D-Calif.]." 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that he did not think Congress would have to pass a temporary extension of surface transportation funding.

Lawmakers have been negotiating for a month to try to avoid a tenth extension of the transportation funding bill that expired in 2009, and Reid said Thursday that he thought a bicameral agreement might be in reach.

"I don't think we'll need an extension. I hope not," Reid said during a news conference at the Capitol. "I can't guarantee anyone here we're going to get a highway bill, but we're certainly in a lot better shape than we were 24 hours ago."