DALLAS -- Senate debate on a $317 billion transportation bill got under way Thursday after Democrats softened their opposition to some of the $47.5 billion of revenue shifts needed to fund the first three years of the six-year bill.
The Senate voted, 62-36, on Wednesday to proceed with the transportation funding measure, which conflicts with the House's $8.1 billion, five-month extension of federal reimbursements to states for highway and transit projects.
Federal highway funding authority will expire July 31 without congressional action. House leaders contend that their proposal to extend the Highway Trust Fund until Dec. 18 gives lawmakers time to agree on tax code reforms that would generate the revenues needed to fully fund a multiyear bill.
The debate will probably extend into next week and may require a weekend session, said Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"Last night's vote represents an important first step toward passing a multiyear, bipartisan highway bill," McConnell said Thursday.
"We're still determined to get this to the House in a timely manner," he said. "We expect to work through Saturday to ensure that we do."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said there's not enough time remaining before the HTF fix expires to pass the Senate bill.
"A long-term bill . . . cannot possibly be finished by the 31st of July when the authorization runs out," Pelosi said. "So we would hope that they would follow the path that we set here in a very bipartisan way from the House to the Senate, even though we're reluctant to support another short-term bill. The fact is July 31 is fast upon us."
Wednesday's late-night 62-36 vote to allow limited debate on the multiyear funding measure came after McConnell agreed to some changes to the $47.5 billion of revenue offsets in the bill opposed by several Democrats. The bill's consideration was voted down, 56-41, on Tuesday.
The revised measure no longer includes $2.3 billion to be saved by cutting off Social Security benefits to people with felony warrants.
"I don't know of any time in our history when the Senate has taken money out of the Social Security fund and put it in some other public purpose," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. "It's outrageous."
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., agreed to bring up the highway bill in his first Senate vote after prostate cancer surgery.
"The bill still needs some fixing but tonight it was a question of whether or not we even have a bill to fix," Nelson said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., were among the 30 Democrats who voted against the measure. The six Republicans in opposition included three candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016: Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a key architect of the Senate proposal, said the six-year bill is the "only opportunity we're going to have" to pass a multiyear funding measure in 2015.
"We're going to try to pass this by the end of next week," Inhofe said Thursday. ""If we miss this opportunity to authorize a six-year bill with three years of funding, we will miss the 2015 construction season."
Senators can offer amendments to the transportation funding measure even if they do not pertain to highways or transit, Inhofe said.
"I urge my colleagues to start filing amendments and to join me on the floor for a robust debate about the future of our nation's surface transportation system," Inhofe said.
