Senate to Take Up Transportation Appropriations Bill

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DALLAS — The Senate will take up a House-approved fiscal 2016 transportation appropriations bill this week that would freeze federal highway funding at the $40.25 billion level authorized in fiscal 2015.

The appropriations in the measure would be contingent upon passage of a multiyear federal funding bill that is currently under negotiation by House and Senate conferees.

The House passed a two-week extension of federal transportation funding (H.R. 3996) on Monday night while lawmakers continue to  work out differences between six-year highway proposals adopted by each chamber. The House's measure is an amended version of the Senate's DRIVE Act (H.R. 22).

Authority for the Transportation Department to reimburse states for highway and transit projects out of the Highway Trust Fund will expire at midnight Friday without the extension that keeps the funds flowing only through Dec. 4.

The House passed the two-week funding bill on a voice vote. Quick passage of what would be the 36th short-term extension in the past 10 years is expected in the Senate by Friday.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said the two-week extension is necessary but should be the last one.

"It is beyond time to get serious about how we are going to fund our transportation future," Norton said after the voice vote.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a member of the conference committee working on a compromise transportation bill, said the negotiations on a long-term measure are proceeding smoothly.

"We are really making progress," she told reporters on Tuesday. "We need a couple of days."

The conference committee will hold a public session on Wednesday.

House leaders have appointed 16 Republicans and 12 Democrats to the panel, including Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who is the chief sponsor of the six-year House measure, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the committee's ranking Democrat.

The seven Republican and six Democratic senators on the conference committee include Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Boxer.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday put onto the Senate calendar a vote on the House appropriations bill (HR 2577) that would set the fiscal 2016 funding for the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Senate is expected to decide Wednesday on a procedural issue that would both limit debate on the measure and prevent a filibuster, with a floor vote expected before the Thanksgiving recess. It would take 60 votes to advance the appropriations bill.

The House passed the 2016 appropriations bill on June 9 by a narrow margin, 216-210. The Senate Appropriations Committee adopted its transportation appropriations measure on June 25.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee's transportation panel, said on Tuesday that a substitute amendment to the House bill that incorporates the Senate committee's plan may be introduced during the floor debate. The proposal's funding levels would be revised to match the recent two-year budget agreement, PL 114-74, she said.

Both appropriations measures would keep federal highway expenditures at $40.25 billion in fiscal 2016, the same level as in fiscal 2015. The appropriations are contingent on the passage of a reauthorization of federal transportation funding. The Senate measure would provide $10.5 billion for public transit in 2016, down $424 million from fiscal 2015, while the House bill allocates $10.7 billion to transit.

The House proposal would slash the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program to $100 million in fiscal 2016, but the Senate version would keep TIGER, also known as National Infrastructure Investments, at the current $500 million per year.

President Obama's proposed six-year Grow America Act (H.R. 2410) would provide $51.3 billion of federal highway funding and $18.2 billion for public transit in fiscal 2016. The president's plan would boost TIGER funding to $1.25 billion per year.

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