GOP chairman: House ‘needs to make its voice heard’ in highway debate

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday that the House “needs to make its voice heard” in the debate over transportation funding that is dominating Washington.

Lawmakers in the House have said they are planning to vote Wednesday on a temporary three-month transportation extension and then leave town in an effort to force the Senate to accept it. 

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said Tuesday that he believes ” this three-month extension represents the compromise that allows the House more time, and a confirmation of our commitment to produce a fiscally responsible long-term proposal.

{mosads}“My goal remains the completion of a long-term bill to improve our nation’s roads, bridges, and other infrastructure as soon as possible, and the House continues to make progress on that bill,” he said in a statement.

“The Senate’s work on their transportation bill is a positive step, but the House also needs to make its voice heard and put forth its own priorities for such a significant piece of legislation,” he added.

Lawmakers are facing a Friday deadline for renewing federal road funding. The House and Senate are gridlocked on the length of a possible extension, imperiling infrastructure spending at the height of the busy summer construction season.  

Lawmakers in the House balked at the Senate’s multiyear proposal, and the lower chamber is planning to vote on a bill that would extend transportation funding until Oct. 29 to buy time for negotiations.

The Senate has not relented in its effort to pass a longer transportation funding bill, setting up a standoff that is threatening funding for infrastructure projects at the height of the busy summer construction season.

“The Senate continues to move closer and closer to passage of bipartisan, multi-year highway bill,” Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at the start of Tuesday’s Senate session. 

“Success was never assured at the beginning of this process, it wasn’t assured even yesterday,” McConnell continued. “We’re not done yet, but the important thing is that the Senate is now on the verge of passing a multi-year highway bill.”

The Department of Transportation has warned that it will have to cut back on payments to states for construction projects after Friday unless Congress reaches an agreement on an extension of the infrastructure funding.