Todd Zwillich

Senators James Inhofe and Barbara Boxer (photo by EPWChairBoxer viaFlickr)

UPDATED Years late, and much smaller than once envisioned, the Senate has passed its version of a two-year $109 billion transportation bill by a wide, bi-partisan majority.

The move puts pressure on the House to approve a bill with only weeks to go before highway authorization runs out.

Lawmakers passed the two-year, $109 billion bill in a 74-22 bipartisan vote. All lawmakers who voted against the bill were Republicans, while 22 other GOP members voted 'yes'.

Passage came after weeks of wrangling on the Senate floor, largely over unrelated, and in many cases, politically-charged issues. But progress accelerated earlier this week when party leaders reached agreement on amendments to the bill. That cleared the way for Wednesday's bipartisan vote.

The vote increases pressure on House Republicans, who have been unable to rally support for their own version of the bill. A larger, 5-year, $260 billion package faltered last month when it became clear Republicans could not muster the votes to pass it. That's sent Republicans  back into negotiations to find an alternative. Current highway authorization, including the collection of the 18.4 cent per gallon gas tax, expires March 31.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week that he would put the Senate bill, or one similar to it, up for a House vote if Republicans there did not soon reach agreement on how to pass their preferred 5-year version.

"We are all working together toward coalescing around a longer-term approach with needed reforms," Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steele, said Wednesday. "If we can’t get there, we may have to take up something like the Senate bill – but we’d prefer to take the responsible approach on this and get a longer term bill through the House.”

On Wednesday that agreement seemed no closer to being reached. And that raises a question of whether Republican leaders can find 218 votes to pass their own version of a highway bill, especially after a broad bipartisan Senate vote and a ticking legislative clock.

"They could get to 218 with our bill, and they should do it," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee and one of the bill's main sponsors. "You can't say it's too contentious because we've proven that it's not," she said.

Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), the senior Republican sponsor of the bill, said the bill should appeal to GOP lawmakers because it streamlines several government programs and speeds environmental reviews of federally funded road projects.

"A conservative, in my opinion, should be a big spender in two areas: National defense and infrastructure," Inhofe told reporters.

The White House also praised the bill on Wednesday and put pressure on House Republicans to take up the bill when the body returns from a recess next week. "We are hopeful that the House will move swiftly and in similarly bipartisan," Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.

Secretary Ray LaHood, an outspoken critic of the House bill, also spoke highly of the bill:  “Today's passage of the Senate transportation bill shows what Congress is capable of when they work together in a bipartisan manner.  Thanks to the leadership of Senators Boxer and Inhofe, working with their colleagues from the Banking, Commerce and Finance Committees, states are one step closer to putting Americans to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, transit systems and railways.

"Like President Obama's transportation proposal, this bill would relieve congestion on our roads, expand our transit and rails systems, and provide Americans with safe, affordable ways to reach their destinations when gas prices are high.  I hope that the House will follow their lead in passing a bipartisan transportation bill.”

The bill also received praise from transportation advocates who have been pushing for transit, biking, walking, and denser development.

Among other provisions, the bill restores a tax benefit for transit commuters to $240 a month, pre-tax.  That benefit had been slashed to $125 a month as of January after a failure to act to extend the bill.

“The Senate today has done the nation a great service in overcoming partisan gridlock to help Americans avoid literal gridlock," said Transportation for America Director James Corless.  "The bill that makes important policy strides even as it maintains funding levels necessary to preserve and expand our transportation infrastructure."

The bill extends the commuter benefit for transit users, makes feeral funds available for bike and pedestrian projects, and include emergency provisions to allow transit agencies to avoid service cuts and fare hikes.

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Speaker John Boehner (House Photo)

The Senate's transportation bill bill may be the last game in town.

House Republicans leaders have been struggling for weeks to drum up enough support in their own ranks to pass a 5-year bill. Now, faced with a ticking clock on an expiring law, they may be forced to align instead with a bipartisan alternative now on the Senate floor.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) acknowledged Thursday that the GOP's bill still doesn't have the votes it needs to come to the floor and pass. That's despite last-ditch pleas from Republican leaders this week, warning members that the bill might be their last chance to put a conservative stamp on a debate that must ultimately include the Senate and President Obama.

"At this point in time the plan is to bring up the Senate bill, or something like it," Boehner told reporters. He added that talks continue over the 5-year bill, priced originally at $260 billion. Boehner said a longer-term bill is one "most of our members want.'

But getting enough of them to agree to how to do it, and where to find the money to pay for it has proved another matter. And House Democrats have kept the effort at arm's length.

Meanwhile, the Senate began voting on amendments to its own 2-year, $109 billion bill Thursday, though none was directly related to transportation policy. The most high profile vote killed a GOP effort to force approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called Boehner's comments "a big step forward" in getting final agreement on a bill.  Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) who handles political strategy and messaging for Senate Democrats, said Democrats and Republicans could reach a bipartisan deal on the bill and urged Republicans not to "muck it up."

The Senate is set to continue voting on transportation amendments next Tuesday.

After weeks of behind-the-scenes brinksmanship, the Senate is finally set to begin casting votes on its highway and infrastructure bill Thursday.

Republicans and Democrats reached an agreement late Wednesday on a list of 30 amendments to the two-year, $109 billion transportation bill. Senate aides said they expect the body to begin voting in the morning Thursday and continue throughout the day, a marathon voting session known around the Senate as a "vote-a-rama."

"We can finish this tomorrow. It's a huge job," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said while announcing the agreement on Wednesday night on the Senate floor. Democratic aides later clarified that the amendment list was long enough that a vote on final approval of the highway bill would likely get pushed to next Tuesday.

The Senate won't vote on substantive transportation amendments right away. A list of controversial amendments on unrelated issues is due up first, including expansions in offshore drilling, boiler regulations, offshore tax havens and lowering of corporate tax rates. The Senate is also set to vote on a pair of amendments pushing the Obama Administration on its politically-charged decision to delay construction of parts of the Keystone XL pipeline.

After that, substantive, or "germain" amendments are set to follow on a range of transportation issues, including toll road rules, bridge construction and an amendment sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) that would do away with a ban on restaurants at interstate rest stops.

Final passage Tuesday would see the Senate approve its version of the highway bill while the House is out of town on a week-long recess with its own version of the bill very much in doubt. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made a last-ditch effort Wednesday to sell skeptical conservatives on a version of a five-year, $260 billion highway bill. The Senate's bill, which is bipartisan but unpopular with many House Republicans, was presented as the bill of last resort if House members can't reach an agreement on a bill of their own.

The law governing the Highway Trust Fund expires at the end of the month, and with House Republicans stalled and the body out of town next week, it is looking increasing unlikely that Congress will pass a final bill by the deadline. That would require lawmakers to pass a temporary extension until a broader agreement can be reached, or let highway programs shut down.

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UPDATED WITH BOEHNER COMMENTS House Republican leaders have arrived at an 18-month highway bill they hope can replace a much broader five-year bill that faltered earlier this month, according to lawmakers and aides.

But speaking Thursday morning, House Speaker John Boehner says the 18-month option was falling flat with members of congress.  ""Apparently our members don't think too highly of it," Boehner said of attempts to sell the shorter bill to the House majority. ""I would only think of it as a fall-back measure."

Boehner said leadership is still trying to work on a 5-year bill.

The 18-month bill would reauthorize the Highway Trust Fund into mid-2013, and also reconnects federal transit funding to the trust fund. Disconnecting the two proved contentious in the 5-year bill and caused several Republicans in transit-heavy districts to revolt.

The shorter bill would  also glean about $40 billion from new cuts to federal worker pensions, a move guaranteed to enrage Democrats, especially since the figure appears to be much larger than a $10 billion estimated gap in the bill for the Highway Trust Fund.

The rest of the bill's policies remain largely the same to the 5-year bill that was scuttled when conservatives also rejected it because of its $260 billion price tag. Republicans do not yet have a total cost figure for the 18-month bill, an aide said.

Republican members were polled for their support while on the House floor Wednesday evening, according to Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), a moderate and GOP point person on transportation. "They're going to try to jam it," he said. "They went backward because that's what the conservatives said they wanted," LaTourette told Transportation Nation.

A Republican leadership aide confirmed the details of the new bill and said it could be on the House floor as early as next week.

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Don't waste any time scanning C-SPAN for for congressional transportation votes this week. It's only Wednesday, and already the prospect of any floor action on transportation legislation in Congress is dead for this week.

That's the line from lawmakers and aides in both the House and Senate, as progress on highway bills in each chamber remain bogged down.

In the House, GOP leaders are still working on a scaled-back version of their five-year, $260 billion highway and infrastructure bill after Democrats balked and many Republicans revolted earlier this month. As reported elsewhere, discussions center around a shorter-term bill with a lower price tag. Republicans are tinkering with many provisions, including rejoining federal transit programs to funding from the Highway Trust Fund.

But those negotiations won't be anywhere close to done this week, lawmakers and aides said. "The leadership is working with the chairmen to try to bring a bill to the floor that can pass," Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, put it more succinctly: "What they're trying to do is find the votes," he said.

Meanwhile, while a two-year, $190 billion bill is pending on the Senate floor, leaders there have still not agreed to the list of amendments needed to let debate proceed. Republicans are insisting on dealing with several other non-transportation-related votes first. They include an amendment to allow broad religious exemptions to new Obama Administration rules requiring insurance coverage for contraception and another taking foreign aid money away from Egypt to punish that country for its crackdown on US non-profit organizations.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he expects a vote on the contraception amendment to take place Thursday, with others to follow. But no transportation-related amendments are likely to come up for the remainder of the week, Senate aides said.

The current Highway Bill's authorization expires at the end of March, and the slow pace of progress in both chambers is putting a new authorization in serious doubt. The House is session next week but out of session the week after. Assuming Republican leaders come up with a workable bill, that would leave just two weeks to pass it and reconcile it with a Senate version. And THAT'S assuming the Senate completes its glacial process and list of amendment votes that is already dozens of votes long.

Talk of yet another temporary Highway Bill extension, possibly 18 months in length, is growing on Capitol Hill.

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The House GOP's $260 billion transportation and infrastructure bill is facing a revamp, but Speaker John Boehner made it clear Thursday where he's going for more votes. And it's not to Democrats.

Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested to reporters he's not fishing for Democrats to support the bill and will instead tweak the legislation in an effort to woo more Republicans.

A revolt among conservatives and some suburban Republicans forced GOP leaders to delay consideration of large parts of the bill this week. That's sent leaders, including Boehner and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fl.), on the hunt for policy changes that will pull more votes.

Conservative revolts on big, fiscally important bills have in the past sent Boehner into the arms of House Democrats to get the votes he needs. The Budget Control Act and a spending package that avoided a government shutdown are examples from the past year. Just today, negotiators--and Boehner--signed off on a payroll tax and unemployment insurance extension deal that Democrats say they'll back, while conservatives won't.

And on a traditionally bipartisan highway bill, you might expect Boehner to opt for the same strategy. So far, though, he isn't.

After spending a few minutes trashing the GOP's transportation and energy bill at a press conference Thursday, House Democratic Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was asked if she's been approached by Boehner for support on the bill. She said she hadn't.

"No, we haven't had any suggestions of, 'What would you like to see here,'" Pelosi said.

The Senate transportation bill, Pelosi pointed out, is a bipartisan effort shepherded by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and James Inhofe (R-Okla.). Ultimately the House effort, if it passes, may have to go up against a Senate bill with broader appeal.

Minutes after Pelosi's remarks, Boehner had this to say about the Senate and his own strategy:

"The Senate's another chamber, they can do what they want to do. We believe that we need to have fundamental change to get the government barriers out of the way to produce jobs, both in the energy area and in the infrastructure area. So we're going to continue to move down that path."

Democrats are railing against the House bill for its treatment of transit, rail projects, environmental review and reliance on fossil fuel production for financing. We'll have to wait until after the President's Day recess to find out if Boehner's strategy sticks, and if it can get the GOP's bill past the the House.

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Speaker John Boehner, facing stiff opposition, has trisected the transportation bill in the hopes of getting it passed. (House photo)

The early going for two giant surface transportation bills in Congress is about as bumpy as the crumbling roads they're supposed to repair.

The House is gearing up to start floor debate Wednesday on Republicans' five-year $260 billion highways and infrastructure bill. But near-unanimous opposition from Democrats and significant revolts from within their own ranks have also forced GOP leaders to resort to some deft legislative tactics to help the bill along to passage.

Complaints from Democrats and their allies in the transit and environmental communities is not surprising. But GOP leaders have faced days of withering criticism a motley group of Republicans, including  suburban and big-city backbenchers as well as conservatives, Tea Party lawmakers, and others upset by the overall cost.

One of the most adamant critics is U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, himself a former GOP congressman, who Tuesday said the bill "would take us back to the horse and buggy age."  He's also called it "lousy," "the worst bill in decades," and "the most partisan ever."

The mounting opposition threw the fate of the giant bill--its road projects, funding reforms, oil drilling provisions, even the Keystone XL Pipeline--into serious doubt. Republican leaders officially decided Tuesday to resort to some legislative gymnastics to help out the situation.

They've decided to break the bill up into three main sections on the floor this week: transportation projects and funding, energy, and federal employee pensions. The point? The strategy allows Republicans unwilling to vote for the behemoth bill as a whole to instead vote bit by bit on a menu of bills. The idea here is that while lawmakers may jump on or off of individual parts,  each could pass with varying coalitions of members.

The fun doesn't end there. Each section is attracting heaps of amendments, the count hovering around 300 at the time of this filing. Amendments run the gamut, from restoring reduced transit funding to killing or slowing down the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. There are amendments on HOT lanes, and HOV lanes, pedestrian projects known as "enhancements,"  and efforts to cut or boost the bill's overall funding level.

House leaders plan to use a procedure enabling each of the parts, when passed, to coalesce automatically into one big package for transport to the Senate.

There it will encounter emotions ranging from indifference to repulsion.

The Senate is set to move back onto consideration of its two-year, $109 billion highway bill some time tomorrow evening. But that only opens the door for ongoing disagreement over amendments, some of which are relevant to transportation and some of which are not. A GOP effort to force construction of the Keystone XL pipeline is expected, but so are amendments on the recent controversy over the Obama Administration's contraceptive insurance policy.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is pledging to hold up the bill pending a vote on his bid to cut off funding to Egypt as punishment for alleged intimidation of American non-profit workers. The tangential transportation connection here is that one of the NGO workers in question, Sam LaHood, is the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

All of this is happening while Republican and Democratic negotiators move to strike a deal on extending expiring payroll tax cuts, unemployment benefits and Medicare payments for doctors. Any such deal is bound to get privileged House and Senate floor time once a deal is struck and quick passage becomes a priority, aides said.

Given procedural hurdles, it looks increasingly unlikely that the bill can pass the Senate this week. Congress is on recess for the President's Day week. So that means no resolution until late February, at the earliest.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has set in motion the procedure to move to the Senate Highway bill, cueing up its first test vote for Thursday.

Senators will vote then on whether to proceed to the $109 billion, two-year surface transportation bill known as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, or MAP-21. The bill is expected to get the 60 votes needed to overcome delay tactics that have become standard practice in today's Senate.

The Senate Finance Committee Tuesday finished its markup attempt to bridge a $12 billion gap for the bill. The Highway Trust Fund is fed with gasoline excise taxes. But the money wasn't enough to fund all of the bill's projects and it was up to the Finance Committee to make up the difference. In the end, the panel came up with $10.5 billion.

Assuming MAP-21 gets 60 votes to proceed on Thursday, it'll then be open for amendments on the Senate floor. Reid has not said how long he's willing to let the amendment process go before trying to bring debate to a close.

Meanwhile House Republicans are still preparing to bring up their 5-year, $206 billion highway bill next week. The price tag has some conservative Republicans criticizing the plan, while controversial measures like opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling and forcing approval of the Keystone XL pipeline have Democrats in widespread opposition. Democrats are also up in arms over several of the bill's policy choices, including cuts to Amtrak and cuts to federal mass transit programs.

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(Washington, D.C) Twenty-four times a charm.

The Senate gave final approval Monday evening to a four-year authorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, breaking a sorry streak of 23 temporary authorizations going back to 2007.

The 75 to 20 vote sends the bill to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law. It authorizes about $16 billion in spending each year on the agency. The bill governs significant parts of airport and runway programs, air traffic control, airline safety, and navigation regulations.

Lawmakers reached a deal in January that included a compromise on federal union rules. Democrats agreed to increase from 35% to 50% the proportion of workers at a company who must petition for unionization before a shop can vote to organize. While the deal paved the way for the FAA bill to enter final negotiations, it also enraged several unions. They've been letting Democrats know about their displeasure with the deal, and it helps explain why 14 Senate Democrats, many of them with heavy union backing, voted against the final package. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal Vermont Independent, also voted against the bill.

The deal also continues the controversial Essential Air Service, a subsidy program designed to encourage airlines to fly to out-of-the-way and unprofitable airports. House Republicans had tried to kill the subsidy, but some Senate Democrats representing rural states, kept it on board.

Passage of FAA's authorization represents a detente from partisan clashes over the summer. One even lead to a partial shutdown of the agency lasting more than a week. But it is unclear whether bipartisanship will reign over other, larger transportation issues in Congress. The Senate is now moving toward taking up a 2-year, $109 billion Highway Bill reauthorization. If it passes it will go up against a 5-year, $260 House GOP alternative slated for floor action next week.

The House bill contains many controversial provisions, including opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. It's also likely to include an attempt to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

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Senator Harry Reid

Breaking now from the Senate:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that two of the biggest and most controversial transportation items on Congress's docket will be up on the Senate floor next week.

Reid said the Senate will vote Monday on the final House-Senate agreement authorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. A deal of FAA was reached this week after a logjam over union rules was broken by negotiators last week. The bill should soon be headed to President Obama's desk.

Reid said the Senate would then take up its version of the Transportation authorization bill, otherwise known as the Highway bill. The Senate has a 2-year, $109 billion bill set to go up against a 5-year, $260 billion package introduced by House Republicans this week and slotted for floor time the week of February 13th. Reid said the Senate bill contains the potential for "millions of jobs."

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House Republicans rolled out parts of a $260 billion transportation infrastructure bill Tuesday, casting the legislation as a major vehicle for job creation and energy production.

The five-year bill reauthorizes highway, transit and safety programs but also eliminates or consolidates dozens of existing federal functions. Supporters said its designed to streamline federally-funded projects, cut bureaucratic red tape and give states more flexibility to spend money on projects they prioritize.

Congress hasn't approved a "permanent" transportation bill since 2005, and if this one succeeds it will be the first successful bid following eight temporary extensions. But while groups representing the construction industry, trucking and other interests are supportive, Republicans and Democrats are bound to clash in an environment where parties have been more interested in showing their differences than their ability to compromise.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week he gave the bill little chance of passage.

Republicans are calling their bill the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, and House GOP leaders are targeting it for floor action later in February. But there are some big hurdles standing between the bill and President Obama's desk. More on that in an minute. First, here are some of the key provisions:

-A $260 billion, 5-year bill that feeds the Highway Trust Fund at $35 billion per year via the federal gas tax. Republicans intend to make up a sizable funding shortfall with revenue from expanded domestic energy production, including natural gas, offshore drilling, shale and other projects. Republicans stressed that the bill contains no earmarks, which is notable considering that the transportation authorization bill is a traditional home for thousands of them.

-Consolidation or elimination of some 70 federal highway and transit programs

-Elimination of transportation "enhancements" that require states to spend up to 10% of their federal highway money on non-highway projects like bike paths or beautification projects. "We're going to get the maximum amount of money in our real infrastructure and hopefully people will see the difference," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fl., who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

-No federal Infrastructure Bank. Instead the bill expands from 10% to 15% the amount of federal highway dollars states can put into their own infrastructure banks, if they've got them.

-Expedited environmental review for many federal projects. Mica stressed that Republicans aren't "running over" environmental protection rules, but that times for those reviews should be shortened. The bill also shrinks some consecutive environmental assessments into concurrent ones.

-$1 billion in expanded funding for state and local transpo loans under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). It's a popular program, and that one has bipartisan support.

-Cuts AMTRAK funding by 25% in 2012 and 2013.

-Has no provisions for high speed rail except for what Mica described as "placeholders"

-Increases the allowable weight for trucks to 126,000 lbs, another provision that has the rail industry hopping mad.

-New incentives for states to require that convicted drunk drivers must use breathalyzer locks to start their cars. Beverage and Restaurant groups are up in arms over the provision and are vowing a fight. "We're going to work with everybody. The bill isn't final," said Mica, acknowledging the controversy.

And final it is not. Mica's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is set to mark up the bill in a marathon session Thursday. So long, in fact, that the chairman urged reporters to bring "hemorrhoid cream" to the session. But that's only part of the work that needs to be done. GOP leaders intend to use expanded energy revenue to help pay for the bill's big funding gap. That means that other committee's, including the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee have to get involved to authorize new projects and raise money.

After that's all done the bill goes head-to-head with a smaller, two-year Senate bill with significantly fewer reforms but higher spending for the Highway Trust Fund.

And here's a twist to watch: Over the weekend House Speaker John Boehner suggested Republicans may use the bill as a vehicle to try and force President Obama to approve the controversial Keyston XL oil sands pipeline. That's assuming the pipeline isn't passed as part of a deal to extend payroll tax breaks and unemployment benefits through the end of the year.

Mica, who is fond of stressing the commonalities he and Senate Democrats have over transportation issues, laughed when asked if inclusion of Keystone XL might upset the chances for an election-year compromise.

"What are you, some kind of troublemaker," he said.

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Truck hauling pipeline pipe in Kansas (photo by Steve Meirowsky via Wikimedia Commons)

House Republicans intend to use their upcoming highway and infrastructure bill to push for approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, Speaker John Boehner said Sunday.

“If it’s not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it’ll be part of it,” Boehner said during an interview on ABC's "This Week".

The controversial pipeline has become a political flashpoint between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans demanded an expedited Obama Administration decision on the pipeline's approval as part of a deal temporarily extending payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits back in December. The administration rejected the approval earlier this month, setting off GOP criticism that President Obama's political allies were preventing a project that could grow jobs.

House and Senate negotiators are now bargaining over a one-year payroll tax extension, and Boehner's statement suggests Republicans are keen to avoid another bruising confrontation with Democrats over the pipeline issue.

“[E]xtending the payroll tax cut that the president has called for, the House has already passed the year-long extension.  We are in a formal conference with the Senate, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to resolve this fairly quickly," Boehner said.

Instead, it appears Keystone may become one of a long list of domestic energy projects Republicans try to promote in their upcoming highway and infrastructure bill. The five-year bill calls for $260 billion in highway funding, financed partially through expansions in domestic energy production. Details of the bill are expected this week, and House Republican aides say they expect it to come to the floor in February.

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FAA Building in Washington D.C. (Photo (CC) by Flickr user cecliaflyer)

The GOP-controlled House is set to vote Tuesday on a month-long extension to the  Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization, setting up what leaders hope is a final resolution to an ugly standoff over the agency.

The House is set to vote on a bill extending FAA's authorization through February 17, several congressional aides confirmed. The Senate should follow next week, according to Democratic aides. It'll be the 24th temporary extension for FAA authorization since 2007.

The votes come after Republicans and Democrats reached a deal last week on controversial union organizing rules controlled by the National Mediation Board. The compromise preserves a provision whereby absentee votes count toward a decision to unionize at a company, as Democrats wanted. But, in a concession to Republicans, the compromise increases from 35 to 50 the percentage of workers who would have to vote in favor of unionization in order for a shop to organize.

The NMB labor issues are not the only ones dogging FAA authorization. Issues of rural airline subsidies and overall spending levels are among those that still need to be worked out. If they are, lawmakers hope to vote on a four-year "permanent" FAA authorization in February, according to aides.

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A spokeswoman for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says the libertarian lawmaker was "detained" by the Transportation Security Administration  in Nashville after setting off a full body scan.

The spokeswoman, Moira Bagley, said Paul set off the machine "on a glitch." She said Paul was detained after refusing a full-body pat-down following the alarm. Paul is a staunch critic of the TSA in general and pat-downs in particular, calling them a violation of constitutionally-protected civil liberties.

"That don't fly," Bagley stated in an email. She said Paul put in a direct call to TSA chief John Pistole, whom Paul has fiercely criticized in writings, speeches and Capitol Hill hearings.

TSA officials denied that Paul had been detained.  "Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area," a TSA spokesman said.

It was immediately unclear whether Paul was free to proceed or whether the agency was using a differed definition of the word than the was the senator's staff.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), the senator's father and  a Republican presidential candidate, posted messages on his Facebook page and Twitter feed stating his son had been "detained".

"There was an 'anomaly' in Rand's initial body scan, so my son requested to be scanned a second time. TSA demands a full body pat down and Rand refused," stated a post on Ron Paul's Facebook page.

The TSA issued a statement denying Sen Paul was detained, but saying instead he was denied access to the terminal because passengers who refuse security screening are not allowed to proceed.

Sen Paul was scheduled to speech at the annual March for Life anti-abortion rally in Washington Monday.

UPDATE: Bagley confirms to TN that Sen Paul rebooked on another flight, was rescreened without incident and went on his way without incident. "He's heading to DC," she said.

Bagley would not say what further steps Sen Paul may take in the wake of the incident. "Weird how the anomaly disappeared during the same screening process," she said.

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(Washington, DC) White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to call for the resignation of the head of the FAA Monday, just hours after news of the officials weekend drunk driving arrest became known.

"What we have at this point is a matter that just came to light in the last hour or so," Carney said when asked whether President Obama would call for the resignation of FAA Administrator Randolph Babbitt. Babbitt was arrested Saturday night in Virginia and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Carney noted that Babbitt had asked to be placed on administrative leave. "For further dispensation of this matter I would refer you to the Department of Transportation," he said.

Carney said the president was informed of Babbitt's arrest on Monday afternoon and  "didn't have a particular reaction."

"He reacted as you might expect," Carney added.

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House Democrats floated a bill Thursday designed to spur job growth by enforcing "made in America" provisions on US transportation and infrastructure projects.

Current law already requires firms to tilt toward US firms for taxpayer-funded transportation projects. But loopholes allow firms to go overseas if there are significant cost differences, and often don't apply to subcontractors. Now Democrats, with the backing of unions and transportation groups, want to ratchet down on the loopholes and make it harder for companies to use foreign steel and engineering.

Democrats cast the bill as a job-creation effort designed to help flagging employment numbers. Highway and construction projects are viewed on Capitol Hill as a major conduit of jobs growth because of the billions in taxpayer money flowing to all 50 states from the Highway Trust Fund and other programs.

Lawmakers make an example out of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge restoration project, where steel and engineering expertise for the 2.2 mile repair went to Chinese state-owned firms.

"It is appalling, offensive and downright wrong to send our taxpayer dollars to China when they should be invested right here at home," Rep. "Nick" Joe Rahall (W.Va) the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told reporters Thursday.

The bill requires all rail, bus, and aviation equipment and components paid for by US tax dollars to be made with US materials by 2016. That's up from current law, which requires 60% US content. It also makes it harder for contractors to go overseas for materials or expertise on highway and bridge projects. Dems also want to extend "Made in America" requirements to loans, loan guarantee and grant programs administered by DOT.

"We have these capabilities here in this country but we are giving them away to our competitors," Rahall said.

See a summary of the "Invest in American Jobs Act of 2011" here.

Of course, Democrats don't control the House and won't have a chance to get the bill on the floor without Republican help. Rahall said Dems would like to weave the bill, or at least parts of it, into the GOP's five-year transportation infrastructure bill. Lawmakers have talked up a desire to pay for highway projects with expanded domestic energy production and streamlined funding, but have not unveiled bill text.

Politico reported this morning that a lack of open floor time in the House has lead Republican leaders to put off consideration of the transportation bill until next year.

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The congressional supercommittee officially tossed in the towel on Monday afternoon. That's after the six Democrats and six Republicans failed to get close to any agreement on how to achieve at least $1.2 trillion in debt reduction over the next ten years.

Now Washington confronts what's known as the "sequester": $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts that take effect January 2013. Half the cuts come from defense, and hawkish lawmakers are already pledging to undo those. But the other half come from across-the-board cuts to discretionary programs, including transportation. On Monday evening, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood issued the following statement:

“When times are tough, Americans have always come together to accomplish big things. It’s disappointing that some in Congress haven’t been willing to do the same. Because the supercommittee failed to reach an agreement, we now face across-the-board cuts to programs that are critical to rebuilding our crumbling transportation infrastructure and putting Americans back to work."

President Obama pledged Monday to veto any attempt by Congress to undo the cuts, absent a broader deal on the debt.

Another casualty of the supercommittee failure was President Obama's jobs package. Democrats had hoped to attach significant infrastructure spending to the committee's end product. LaHood had this to say in his statement:

“The American people want common sense, bipartisan solutions that take a balanced approach to reducing the deficit while protecting critical transportation investments that create jobs and allow our economy to grow.  When Congress comes back next month, I urge them to set aside politics and get to work on a bipartisan plan that will allow us to live within our means, while also meeting our responsibility to rebuild America’s critical transportation infrastructure.”

A White House official said Monday evening that Democrats would have a "laser" focus on enacting parts of the president's jobs plan between now and the end of the year. Presumably that will mean a return to infrastructure policy and attacking Republicans over their unwillingness to pass more stimulus.

House Republicans have unveiled their own 5-year transportation bill, funding the Highway Trust Fund to the tune of $130 billion and making streamlining reforms to infrastructure grants and loans. House Speaker John Boehner says he would like to see the bill pass before the end of the year.

Congress sent $18 billion in spending for the Department of Transportation to President Obama for a signature Thursday, boosting funds overall -- but zeroing out high speed rail.

The bill funds DOT programs until October 1, 2012, the end of the 2012 fiscal year. The $17.8 billion final price tag is about $4 billion over what the agency got last year, but nearly $15 billion less than what the White House had requested. The figure does not include nearly $40 billion for highway programs and the Highway Trust Fund. The latter is funded mostly from federal gasoline taxes, not general revenue.

But the big loser was high-speed rail. Republicans succeeded in their mission to zero out funding for the Obama Administration favorite. Senate Democrats had tried to include a $100 million "placeholder" to keep at least a bit of cash flowing, but it was removed during House-Senate negotiations.

The Federal Aviation Administration got a $137 million bump up to $12.5 billion in funding. But the controversial Essential Air Service, which subsidizes airfares to rural airports, was cut back to include only active airports.

The bill represents largely static funding for transportation, in a year where many domestic agencies are facing cuts in the name of deficit reduction. But, of course, the next big fight will come with the transportation authorization bill, which seeks to set policy and funding levels for DOT, highway, and transit programs for the next several years. Right now Senate Democrats are bidding a 2-year bill while Republicans are preparing to counter with a five-year effort.

You can check out a summary of the transportation appropriations committee conference report here.

John Boehner (center), with representatives Tim Murphy (L) and Doc Hastings (R), introducing the American Jobs & Infrastructure Act

House Republicans unveiled the outlines of a transportation authorization bill Thursday, relying on controversial methods of paying for highways that are already arousing the ire of Democrats.

The GOP plan pays for highways by expanding domestic energy production in three areas: offshore oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, oil shale, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, otherwise known as ANWR.

In addition to domestic energy, the plan also calls for reforms and cuts in infrastructure programs. It eliminates so-called "transportation enhancements" that states now must fund out of federal highway dollars.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), flanked by several House GOP committee chairmen, teased the five-year bill for reporters but offered few specifics. The bill seeks to expand domestic energy production and also streamline and deregulate federally funded infrastructure projects. It's part of an effort to both fund highway construction and stretch scarce federal dollars further.

Some specifics of the bill were first reported Wednesday evening by Transportation Nation.

Republicans leaders want to use  expanded energy production to try and  match Senate Democrats' on highway funding, according to lawmakers familiar with the plan. Senate Democrats have offered a 2-year, $54 billion package for the Highway Trust Fund. That would suggest Republicans' Highway bill could run as high as $130 billion over five years, though the number could drop significantly if streamlining and deregulation cut the cost of doing projects.

"Our bill links job-creating energy production and infrastructure together," Boehner said at Thursday press briefing.

But Democrats were quick to lash out at the plan, even though it still exists only in outline form and has no price tag attached.

"They're not serious," said Rep. Nick Rahall, the senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He was referring to drilling in ANWR, a perennial partisan flashpoint in Congress and the epitome of 2008's Republican refrain, "Drill, baby, drill".

"Why would they talk about something that they know is going to raise the wrath and anger of our side," Rahall said. "We've been through this before."

Hearings are set to begin Friday, when the House Committee on Natural Resources is scheduled to hold a hearing entitled "ANWR: Jobs, Energy and Deficit Reduction."

Republicans are stressing the first two. Boehner late last week railed against President Obama's decision to delay construction of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, saying it would prevent the creation of 20,00o jobs. Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) Thursday said ANWR's North Slope could hold as many as 10.5 billion barrels of oil.

Still, politics aside, revenue is the big question. Democrats were quick to point out that expansions in offshore drilling royalties would only net $1 billion to $2 billion over ten years. And it dwarfs on-land drilling or shale production.

The bill is also, in large measure, the Republicans' answer to President Obama's election-year push for direct infrastructure spending as a vehicle for job creation. Democrats have spent more than a month applying political pressure to Republicans, pitting infrastructure projects and other popular programs against GOP opposition to tax increases on the wealthy. Boehner cast the bill in economic--and political--terms.

"We don't need more short-term stimulus gimmicks," he said. He decried "meddling and micromanaging our economy."

Boehner and other Republicans aren't talking about where they intend to get the money to pay for the bill. "They're not all available today," Boehner said, when asked about pay-fors for the plan. Boehner said he hopes to see the plan pass out of the House by the end of the year.

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(Photo (cc) by Flickr user scot63us)

(Washington, D.C) House Republicans will unveil a  five-year transportation and highway bill Thursday that matches Senate Democrats in highway funding levels, according to a member of Congress familiar with the bill.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) plans to roll out the bill Thursday morning and pitch it as a major jobs initiative, countering a charge from President Obama and other Democrats that the GOP won't support direct job creation.

Republicans are likely to draw attention to relatively high funding levels in their bill. It will go up against a Senate alternative funding the Highway Trust Fund at $54 billion over two years. The House version, at five years, will be "longer and at least as big" in terms of highway funding, the lawmaker said.

One thing Boehner likely won't reveal Thursday is how the unexpectedly generous bill will be paid for. And this is guaranteed to be a major sticking point with Democrats. Republicans are dead set against any tax increases, for gasoline or for anything else. While Boehner has pointed to royalties for expanded domestic oil drilling as one funding source, that's unlikely to be a major component. Such royalties yield only $800 million to $1 billion over 10 years, and the Highway Trust Fund is tens of billions short if construction projects stay at anywhere near their present pace.

About $8 billion comes from a spend-down on the $22 billion currently held in the fund. Beyond that, "Boehner won't reveal the final (funding) levels until he reveals the pay-fors," the lawmaker said.

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