Senate

Senators press to speed up highway votes

by Jordain Carney - 07/28/15 11:41 AM ET

Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday that they will try to speed up the Senate’s consideration of a six-year highway bill, as they race to pass the legislation before the House leaves town.

“I’m going to make an appeal for whoever is trying to string this thing out to shorten the time so we can have the vote that is pending right now to place and get on with the final vote,” Inhofe said from the Senate floor.

{mosads}Inhofe is trying to get his colleagues to agree to speed up the Senate’s consideration of its long-term bill after House leadership said Tuesday that it would pass a three-month extension on Wednesday and then leave town until September.

The move threw a curveball in the Senate’s game plan, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had planned to try to get the highway bill to the House by Wednesday, so they could, potentially, take it up before they leave town.

But House lawmakers have shown little interest in taking up the Senate’s long-term bill.

Inhofe suggested that House lawmakers had dismissed the Senate bill because “they never believed that we’re going to get passed a six-year highway reauthorization bill over here.”

Durbin told Inhofe on the floor that he would back his efforts to speed up the votes on the Senate’s highway bill.

“We have to appeal to the better angles of our colleagues’ nature in a cooperative effort, which would be a somewhat miraculous effort, but I’m happy to support you,” he added. “Let’s accelerate this, if we can… and pray that our colleagues in the House decide to hang around long enough.”

The Senate on Monday evening overcome a key procedural hurdle for the highway bill. The move set a 30-hour clock until the next vote, which unless senators agree to yield back time, would be around 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

Tags Dick Durbin Jim Inhofe Mitch McConnell