Senate Chairs Push Six Month Highway Extension

A bipartisan group of seven Senate Committee Chairs and Ranking Members sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urging leadership to file cloture to move forward on a 6-month extension of the surface transportation bill to spur job creation and an economic recovery.  A cloture motion is necessary because several Republican senators object to the bill because of  budgetary concerns and will not allow an extension to be considered by the Senate without a cloture vote.   The Senate and the House have been at a standoff concerning how to proceed with reauthorization of the highway and transit programs. Until recently, Senate transportation leaders were supporting an 18-month delay, while the House passed a three month extension with the intent of keeping pressure on for enactment of a six year measure. The Senate leaders now support a six month extension to ensure that the program does not flounder while discussions proceed on a longer term bill. The programs have been operating under the terms of two short term extensions that were included in Continuing Resolutions the second one expires on December 18. The bipartisan letter pointed out that short term extensions mean less money is available for states, and do not provide states the certainty they need to keep crucial transportation projects moving forward. The letter was signed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Ranking Member, Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV), Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Ranking Member, and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Chairman of the Committee on Finance.