Senate highway bill overcomes hurdle
Senators voted late Monday to advance their six-year highway bill, taking another step toward a legislative stalemate with the House on federal infrastructure funding.
Senators voted 62-32 on a procedural vote to end debate on a substitute amendment to the highway bill.
{mosads}The move sets a 30-hour clock until lawmakers can take a final vote on the substitute amendment, and attach it to a House-passed shell bill that is being used as the vehicle in the Senate for infrastructure funding.
Sen. James Inhofe, who helped broker a deal on the legislation, pointed to the bipartisan support behind the vote as another reason House lawmakers should take up the Senate bill.
“I am confident we will have this legislation ready for the House before the July 31 deadline,” the Oklahoma Republican said in a statement after the vote. “It is my hope that the House will reconsider taking up this bipartisan piece of legislation that gives long-term funding certainty for our nation’s highway system, the backbone of our economy.”
Lawmakers are under a tight end-of-the-month deadline to pass highway legislation, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wanting to ship the bill over to the House by Wednesday.
The Senate’s decision to get its legislation one step closer to final passage might all be for nothing. House leadership has shown no interest in taking up the six-year bill and suggested that it will be dead on arrival when, and if, it reaches the House.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Monday that the House wouldn’t be taking up the Senate bill, and urged senators to instead cave and pass House’s five-month extension.
Nearly a dozen Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), bucked McConnell to vote against moving forward with the legislation.
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