By Kevin McCarty
April 30, 2012

The U.S. House of Representatives never won a majority for its surface transportation reauthorization plan, but its adoption of a modified extension bill (H.R. 4348) allows a House-senate conference committee to go forward so that conferees can work to reach agreement on consensus legislation.

The Senate brings to conference committee its bipartisan MAP 21 legislation (S. 1813), which was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate during its floor action on the measure. In contrast, House leaders never found a path to a majority vote on the House floor for its pending legislation, electing instead to pass another extension bill including the adoption of selected amendments on environmental streamlining and the Keystone pipeline.

Clearing the first hurdle in the process to move to a conference committee, the Senate and the House approved their respective conferees, who will work to develop an agreement on renewal of the nation’s surface transportation law, which is at the outside is only expected to authorize highway, transit and safety programs through September 30, 2013.

Senate leaders moved first to appoint its conferees, approving 14 Senators representing the various committees of jurisdiction. Democratic Senate conferees are Sens. Baucus (MT), Boxer (CA), Durbin (IL), Johnson (SD), Menendez (NJ), Nelson (FL), Rockefeller (WV), and Schumer (NY). Republican conferees are Sens. Hatch (UT), Hoeven (ND), Hutchison (TX), Inhofe (OK), Shelby (AL), and Vitter (LA).

The selection of House conferees is more complicated. First, twenty-one Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure were appointed and charged with considering all provisions before the conference, except certain revenue provisions within the purview of the House Ways and Means Committee. The twelve Republican conferees from the House

Transportation and Infrastructure are Beutler (WA), Bushon (IN), Capito (WV), Crawford (AR), Duncan (TN), Hanna (NY), Lankford (OK), Mica (FL), Ribble (WI), Shuster (PA), Southerland (FL), and Young (AK). The nine Democratic conferees are Bishop (NY), Boswell (IA), Brown (FL), Costello (IL), Cummings (MD), DeFazio (OR), Nadler (NY), Norton (DC) and Rahall (WV).

In addition, other members will participate in the conference deliberations on provisions affecting their committees of jurisdiction. For Energy and Commerce Committee provisions, conferees are Reps. Upton (MI), Waxman (CA) and Whitfield (KY). For the Committee on Natural Resources, Reps. Bishop (UT), Hastings (WA) and Markey (MA) were added for these issues. For Science, Space and Technology matters, the additional conferees are Cravaack (MN), Hall (TX), and E.B. Johnson (TX). Finally, the conferees for tax and revenue issues before the Committee on Ways and Means are Blumenauer (OR), Camp (MI) and Tiberi (OH).

As conferees prepare for negotiations on the underlying authorization, appropriators are initiating work on their various spending bills for Fiscal Year 2013, the upcoming fiscal year beginning October 1.

In its action, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies has moved forward with its transportation funding levels, holding most transportation accounts at or near current spending (FY12) levels.

Notably, highway funding is set at $39.1 billion and transit funding at $10.6 billion. The Committee provides $500 million for additional TIGER grants, $3.35 billion for airport improvement grants (AIP), and $1.75 billion for rail infrastructure, including $1.45 billion for Amtrak.