Republicans looked to smooth a major House transportation bill's passage over objections from the right and left.

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

The 23 short-term extensions of FAA funding since 2007 stalled needed long-term projects, officials said.

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."

The $3.8 trillion budget unveiled this week by President Obama includes $47 billion for high-speed rail development, despite a Republican effort to defund the initiative this year.

The Republican-led House voted late last year to eliminate all funding for high-speed rail in the current fiscal year's budget, but Obama's plan calls for spending $2.7 billion in 2013 on rail and $47 billion over the next six years.

The White House reiterated Obama's goal of providing high-speed rail access to 80 percent of the country by 2025.

The funding would "develop high-speed passenger rail corridors and improve intercity passenger rail service to significantly enhance the national rail network," the White House said.

It predicts the highway trust fund would be $78 billion short after 10 years under the $260 billion highway bill. 

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

Paul said as soon as he is granted the vote, he will end his blockade of Senate business.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday that the House will debate a wide-ranging energy and transportation package on the floor this week as several separate pieces of legislation.

The decision to move the 979-page package in pieces allows for “each major component of the plan to be debated and amended more openly, rather than as a single ‘comprehensive’ bill with limited debate and limited opportunity for amendment,” Boehner and Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) said in a joint statement.

Boehner bashed what he called Democrats’ “preference for large bills with limited debate and minimal opportunities for amendment.”