Infrastructure

The administration raised concerns about a provision to approve the Keystone pipeline and said the funding for infrastructure is inadequate.

Democrats on the House Rules Committee called on Republicans to delay consideration of a major transportation authorization and energy bill on Tuesday, because the GOP decided earlier today to split the bill up into three separate measures.

"At best, this is a thinly veiled attempt to force through bad legislation that many of your own Members to not support," Democrats wrote to Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.). "At worst, this new approach is in direct violation of your own leadership's stated commitment to transparency and undermines the integrity of the legislative process for the sake of political expediency."

Sen. Barbara Boxer and other Democrats said the contraception fight is a distraction from legislation that would create jobs.

House Republican leaders are desperately searching for the votes to pass their transportation bill this week.

An alliance between business and labor on infrastructure spending is beginning to fray amid partisan fighting in Congress.

Democrats in the House tried to delay and amend a $260 billion surface-transportation bill Thursday after complaining that their priorities were left in the dust.

Harkening back to Republicans complaints during the stimulus and healthcare debates, Democrats assailed the length of the 846-page bill during the markup by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

"How many members of this committee have read this bill?” asked ranking Democrat Rep. Nick Rahall (W.Va.). “All 840 pages of it?” 

The transportation measure, dubbed the American Energy and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 7), authorizes the collection of the federal gas tax and provides funding for road and transit projects. The bill would tie infrastructure spending to expanded oil drilling, a trade that has been opposed by Democrats. 

House Republicans teed up an election-year battle over jobs Tuesday, unveiling a $260 billion transportation bill designed to put Democrats on the defensive.

The package from House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) would spend $260 billion over five years on road and transit projects — funding that Democrats and President Obama have long championed as stimulus for the economy.

But the GOP bill would pay for some of the transportation work with an expansion of oil and gas drilling, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a nonstarter for many Democrats and their supporters in the environmental movement.

Sensing an advantage, Mica on Tuesday warned Democrats the bill is the only vehicle for highway funding that Republicans would support. 

"This is the only piece of legislation" that can pass the House, Mica said at a press conference in front of the Capitol.

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The speaker said legislation advancing the pipeline would be part of a major infrastructure and energy bill.

The bills would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, a nonstarter for the White House and most Democrats.

The Chamber plans to spend roughly half a million dollars on ads calling for passage of a highway bill.