AASHTO Journal, 17 February 2012
“Given the volume of amendments and the need for a full, fair, open, and transparent process, we may not finish energy/infrastructure this week,” Boehner told his party caucus Wednesday, The Hill reported. “If we need more time to debate and consider amendments, that’s perfectly fine with me. It’s more important that we do it right than that we do it fast.”
Media reports also indicated that the postponement was prompted by leadership’s decision to spend one of the transportation offsets related to federal employee pension contributions on a separate measure to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. That bill cleared the House and Senate today and is on its way to the president. The House will now need to come up with additional revenue raisers to fund the five-year, $260 billion transportation reauthorization, which is designed to maintain current funding levels until 2016.
The Rules Committee will resume its meeting after the Presidents Day week-long recess to review amendments to the transportation provision and adopt a rule structuring the floor debate.
A full list of submitted amendments is available under the “Amendments” tab at bit.ly/HRC733. These include a manager’s amendment offered by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Florida, making technical corrections and modifying various provisions.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee filed Monday its 983-page report on the transportation provisions (House Report 112-397). And the Congressional Budget Office released Monday its cost estimate for the consolidated House transportation and energy package (based on the Rules Committee Print released Feb. 8).
The Senate is also in the midst of considering a surface transportation reauthorization measure, and the Congressional Research Service published a report analyzing both chambers’ bills. (see related story)