Transportation Conference Set to Begin Next Week

House and Senate leaders have appointed their conferees, setting the stage for the start of negotiations on a surface transportation reauthorization proposal when Congress returns from recess next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed 14 senators – eight Democrats and six Republicans – and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.) appointed 33 representatives – 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairperson Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.), who will serve as the conference committee Chair, has scheduled the first official meeting of the conference for Tuesday, May 8. The conference committee will be charged with working out the differences between H.R. 4348, a 90-day extension of the current surface transportation authorization that includes environmental streamlining provisions, approval of the XL oil pipeline and other provisions with the Senate's two-year $109 billion comprehensive bill, MAP-21. The meeting of the conference committee on May 8 will largely be ceremonial, consisting mostly of opening statements by most, if not all 47 members of the conference committee.  Meanwhile much of the initial work of reconciling differences on underlying transportation issues will be conducted out of the public eye by the staffs of the committees of jurisdiction. Some of these preliminary talks have already begun. AGC sent a letter to the conferees detailing AGC’s positions on a variety of priority issues, including funding, financing, environmental streamlining and others. For more information, please contact Brian Deery at (703) 837-5319 or deeryb@agc.org.