WASHINGTON - With a June 30 deadline fast approaching, House Speaker John Boehner suggested Congress pass a six-month bill that continues highway and mass transit funding at current levels if Republicans and Democrats can't reach agreement soon. That would be bad news for Louisiana lawmakers who had hoped that a negotiated transportation bill would include the RESTORE Act, legislation...
WASHINGTON - With a June 30 deadline fast approaching, House Speaker John Boehner suggested Congress pass a six-month bill that continues highway and mass transit funding at current levels if Republicans and Democrats can't reach agreement soon.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, talks to reporters. That would be bad news for Louisiana lawmakers who had hoped that a negotiated transportation bill would include the RESTORE Act, legislation that would allocate 80 percent of Clean Water Act fines for the 2010 BP oil spill to the five Gulf states.
Boehner said Thursday that's he just spelling what would happen if the two sides can't agree by June 30, the date the current short-term transportation authorization legislation runs out.
"Frankly, I think if we get to June 30, there would be a six-month extension and move this thing out of the political realm that it appears to be in at this moment," Boehner said. Under that plan, a long-term transportation bill would be taken up after the November elections
Democrats accused Republicans of trying to run out the clock to avoid enactment of a transportation bill that could give an immediate bolt to the economy - and presumably improve President Barack Obama's re-election prospects, by putting thousands of Americans to work building and repairing roadways and and mass transit projects.
"Last month, we lost 28,000 jobs in the construction sector," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "Let's not risk losing more because this do-nothing Republican Congress refuses to act. I strongly urge the Speaker and House Republicans to set aside their 'my way or no highway' attitude, and start working with Democrats to complete this legislation and help put more Americans back to work."
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said he just met with Boehner and other GOP leaders to point out the importance of enacting the RESTORE Act, which could provide billions of dollars to restore Louisiana's crumbling wetlands and "The speaker's comments regarding another extension were more focused on keeping the negotiations alive to reach a long-term deal on transportation," Scalise said.
Among the major differences dividing Democrats and Republicans is a GOP proposal to force the Obama administration to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, which many Democrats oppose. Republicans object to some spending in the Senate Democratic transportation bill, including using interest from the trust fund for the BP fine money to fund a study of the nation's oceans.