House Republican plans to quickly pass a three-month extension of the transportation law Monday are in jeopardy.
GOP leaders set up a vote Monday requiring two-thirds of voting members to approve the extension. But Democratic leaders are urging their members to oppose the bill — nearly 50 Democrats would have to break ranks for the bill to pass — and GOP leaders may simply pull it from the floor as a result.
“There’s a possibility it could get pulled,” a Republican aide told POLITICO. If that happens, the leadership would instead use a rule to bring the bill to the floor, which requires a simple majority to pass.
But bringing it up later in the week isn’t a sure thing either. The conservative Heritage Action for America warned members against voting for an extension, saying the group “remains opposed to any transportation measure that exceeds incoming revenues to the federal Highway Trust Fund.”
Democrats have rallied against the 90-day extension as they try to force House leaders into taking up a bipartisan two-year bill approved by the Senate several weeks ago.
“Allowing Republicans another 12 weeks would do nothing but feed their dangerous addiction to serial extensions and damaging delays, which are causing uncertainty and chaos at the start of the construction season, when we could be working together to send a bipartisan bill to the president today,” said Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Behind closed doors, Senate Democrats are quietly drafting their own 45- or 60-day stopgap, Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told industry groups last week.
Transportation programs would expire and the gas tax would drop to 4.3 cents per gallon on Sunday without another extension.
If the bill isn’t voted on Monday, the extension could be added to the House Rules Committee markup already scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
A transportation lobbyist confirmed that the scheduling swap is under active consideration, and said it’s exactly what Democrats have wanted all along — and why they’ve been planning to vote no on the extension.
“They want to have an opportunity to tack on the Senate-passed bill, and they would have to bring that to the Rules Committee for that to happen,” the aide said. “Of course Rules would probably not allow it. But to make a political statement, Democrats certainly have every right to do that.”
If the extension does end up being added to Tuesday’s Rules markup, the measure could end up back on the House floor under a rule as soon as Wednesday.
By: Adam Snider and Kathryn A. Wolfe
(Politico)
March 26, 2012 04:01 PM EDT
