Transportation For America » House Republicans opposing 3-month extension, Senate Republicans possibly supporting it

House Republicans opposing 3-month extension, Senate Republicans possibly supporting it

September 23, 2009
By Stephen Lee Davis

UPDATE #2: The House passed the 3-month extension of the transport bill under suspension of the rules yesterday, with a 335-85 vote in favor of the extension.

UPDATED: The bill will likely be voted on today under suspension of the rules, and there will be at least some GOP opposition to it. Elana Schor at Streetsblog reports that “Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) said Cantor would join Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. John Mica (FL), senior Republican on Oberstar’s committee, in opposing the three-month extension.”

Rep. Jim Oberstar’s plan to introduce and/or pass a 3-month extension of the expiring surface transportation bill has hit a snag. According to the subscription-only email service Transportation Weekly, House Republican leadership has decided to oppose the bill, creating a roadblock for passing it today as planned under suspension of the rules, which requires a 2/3 vote and therefore some Republican support.

The 3-month extension (H.R. 3617) has been removed from the scheduled votes for today according to Transportation Weekly, noting that the reason for opposition isn’t exactly clear just yet:

Republicans have not yet made a public announcement as to what their objections to the three-month extension are, but one GOP staffer said that there should be a longer extension until the Democrats take the issue of a gasoline tax increase to pay for House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar’s (D-MN) $450 billion, six-year bill off the table. Therefore, this could represent a real breaking point between Oberstar and his ranking Republican, John Mica (R-FL), who has so far been in lockstep with Oberstar (at least in public)…

To add to the confusion, The Journal Of Commerce reported yesterday that momentum might be building for a a shorter extension in the Senate, where all signs thus far have pointed toward passing the 18-month extension that the Obama administration prefers.

In the face of insistence by leaders in the House of Representatives to extend soon-to-expire federal highway programs by only three months, some senators are beginning to move away from plans for an 18-month extension…

…“There’s some movement, I think, toward a short-term extension” in the Senate, said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Thune is not only part of the Senate Republican leadership team as chief deputy whip but also ranking minority member on the surface transportation panel of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

So to summarize, the Democrats in the House want to pass a 3-month extension. The Republicans in the House are now opposing that, potentially leaning towards an 18-month extension. The Democrats in the Senate want an 18-month extension. The Republicans in the Senate are now leaning towards a shorter extension, possibly 3 months.

There are still several other ways for Rep. Oberstar to get his bill passed in the House without that Republican support, and it’s not certain at all that House Republicans would actually vote against it if push came to shove. Same goes for the Senate.

Stay tuned.