Congress revises transportation reauthorization bills
Published on 03/01/2012
The House is unlikely to consider a new version of a Republican highway bill when lawmakers return to work the first week of March, despite efforts by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to rewrite the $260 billion measure in order to appeal to critics in both the Republican caucus and the Democratic Party.
The bill itself is a five-year reauthorization of the surface transportation program. House insiders believe that Boehner's reworked version will closely resemble the bipartisan version that is advancing in the Senate, a two-year reauthorization with a price tag of $109 billion. President Obama has endorsed the Senate version, which should be finished next week, and is likely to veto the House plan should it arrive on his desk.
The surface transportation programs are currently being run on an extension, which expires March 31, giving both houses of Congress little time to reach an agreement if the House is unable to act on the issue until the week of March 5.
The Senate version may also face some delay as lawmakers complain of many unrelated amendments being attached to the bill. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to reopen the amendment process Monday in the hopes of reaching an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on which amendments to allow.
Conservative critics of the House version of the bill championed by Boehner say the bill simply costs too much, while Republicans representing urban or suburban constituents are hesitant to support the cuts and alterations to Amtrak and mass transit funding. The reworked version is expected to address these concerns, though details are sparse.
A key component of the House bill would authorize use of revenue from an expansion of domestic energy production to fund infrastructure improvements, including the Keystone oil sands pipeline. This is unexpected to change in the updated House draft legislation and is unlikely to appeal many Democratic critics. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) said he had "a lot" of issues with the Boehner legislation and that the continued inclusion of the Keystone oil sands pipeline approval would be unlikely to sway Democrats on the fence regarding the bill.
"If that is in there, I think that will be something that will turn off a good number of House Democrats," Rep. Crowley said.
The possibility of the lapse in funding for current surface transportation programs has been observed anxiously by those who will be most impacted by it.
"We have no idea whether [the bills] are going to be short or long. We're telling the states [to prepare] for probably a series of stopgap funding bills," said Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. "We've been in this position before. I would say it's actually sort of worse. I've got states that don't understand they can't get money past March 31."
