Infrastructure

Passing the two high-profile bills could be the final burst of major legislative activity before the 2012 elections.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that a bicameral transportation funding bill could end up being combined with an extension of a low student loan rates before both expire at the end of the week.

Lawmakers have been grappling with both preventing an expiration of road and transit funding and a scheduled increase in student loan interest rates from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, which are both scheduled to occur at the end of June.

McConnell confirmed Tuesday that the issues could possibly be resolved by merging them.

"I think, as we all know, we're moving toward completion this week of both the extension of the student loan rates at the current level for another year" and the highway bill, McConnell said during a news conference at the Capitol after a Republican Caucus luncheon.

"The president's been largely uninvolved in that, but Sen. [Harry] Reid and I have an understanding that we think will be acceptable to the House," he continued. "[The interest rates bill] may or may not be coupled with the highway proposal over in the House. To my knowledge, it is not yet resolved as to whether that will be some kind of an extension or a full multi-year bill, but those two could end up together. Both need to be dealt with this week." 

Reid said lawmakers were "close to having everything done," but the bill needed to be finalized by Wednesday evening.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he sees a better than even chance that Congress will be able to complete a long-term highway bill this week.

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.

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." 

The House next week is expected to take up two bills that would continue the GOP's trend of seeking cuts to 2013 spending levels.

The Transportation and Housing and Urban Development spending bill, H.R. 5972, would cut $3.9 billion from current levels, and spend a total of $51.6 billion in the next year. The bill is expected to face vocal opposition from Democrats, who are pressing for higher spending levels, particularly in the area of transportation infrastructure upkeep.

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.]." 

The House voted to instruct conferees on the highway bill to keep language in the House measure that would block the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) attempt to regulate coal ash.

Members voted 260-138 in favor of the motion to instruct, which was offered by Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.). The motion was debated Wednesday evening.