AASHTO Journal, 27 April 2012
House and Senate leaders this week announced the appointment of conferees, setting the stage for the start of negotiations on a surface transportation reauthorization proposal when the House and Senate return from recess the week of May 7.
The House and Senate will convene a conference committee to work out the differences between HR 4348, a 90-day extension of the current surface transportation authorization which the House passed on April 18, and the Senate’s two-year $109 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill, MAP-21, which passed last month.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, Tuesday appointed 14 senators – eight Democrats and six Republicans. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Wednesday appointed 33 representatives – 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairperson Barbara Boxer, D-California, announced Thursday that the conference will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, May 8.
The House and Senate approved 90-day extension of the current surface transportation authorization, known as SAFETEA-LU, runs through June 30, 2012. The House and Senate are only scheduled to be in session at the same time during five of the next eight weeks.
AASHTO has encouraged the House and Senate to move to conference as quickly as possible in the hope of negotiating a bill that would give state departments of transportation the programmatic certainty they need to plan work during the current summer construction season.
House Conferees:
Republicans
Rep. John Mica, Florida
Rep. Don Young, Alaska
Rep. John Duncan, Tennessee
Rep. Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia
Rep. Rick Crawford, Arkansas
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington
Rep. Larry Buschon, Indiana
Rep. Richard Hanna, New York
Rep. Steve Southerland, Florida
Rep. James Lankford, Oklahoma
Rep. Reid Ribble, Wisconsin
Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan
Rep. Ed Whitfield, Kentucky
Rep. Doc Hastings, Washington
Rep. Rob Bishop, Utah
Rep. Ralph Hall, Texas
Rep. Chip Cravaack, Minnesota
Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan
Rep. Patrick Tiberi, Ohio
Democrats
Rep. Nick Rahall, West Virginia
Rep. Peter DeFazio, Oregon
Rep. Jerry Costello, Illinois
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York
Rep. Corrine Brown, Florida
Rep. Elijah Cummings, Maryland
Rep. Leonard Boswell, Iowa
Rep. Tim Bishop, New York
Rep. Henry Waxman, California
Rep. Ed Markey, Massachusetts
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Oregon
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
Senator Conferees
Democrats
Sen. Barbara Boxer, California
Sen. Max Baucus, Montana
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia
Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois
Sen. Tim Johnson, South Dakota
Sen. Charles Schumer, New York
Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida
Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey
Republican
Sen. James Inhofe, Oklahoma
Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana
Sen. Oren Hatch, Utah
Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas
Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota