GOP senator ‘very concerned’ about House stance on roads bill

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Monday that his is “very concerned” about the House’s refusal to take up the multi-year transportation funding bill that is  being debated by the Senate. 

“I’m very concerned about what the House is doing right now,” he said. 

“If we don’t pass a long-term bill, we’re going to go right back to what we have done since 2009,” Inhofe continued, referencing the string of 33 temporary extensions of federal transportation funding that have been passed since a 2005 measure expired in 2009. 

{mosads}House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Monday that his chamber will not vote on Senate’s highway bill, which funds construction for three years and revives the now-expired Export-Import Bank.

“We’re not taking up the Senate bill,” McCarthy declared to reporters in his office.

The House has already passed an $8 billion patch to fund road projects through Dec. 18.

Inhofe, who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the House’s short-term highway bill would maintain the status quo of temporary patches that transportation advocates have complained are preventing states from completing badly needed large construction projects.  

“We’ve had 33 short-term extensions since 2009,” the Oklahoma senator said. “When we do that, we don’t get the reforms. This is the last chance we’ve got to get off this thing of short-term extensions.”  

-Scott Wong contributed to this report.