Highway Bill Conference Continues

As AGC reported last week, the House and Senate began official negotiations to reconcile their differences on a bill that will reauthorize federal highway and transit programs.  Members of the conference committee have not met formally as a group since their meeting last week but conferees and their staff has been working behind the scenes. Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that the talks have “passed the organizational stage” and that the committee is now getting into issues where there may be some disagreement including expediting project delivery and streamlining the environmental review process for transportation construction projects.   According to Senator Boxer, the conferees are “working on the substance of the bill.”    The biggest area of disagreement between the House and Senate, which is the inclusion of mandating the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, is far from resolved.  However, there have been some indications from Senator Boxer and other conferees that a deal could be reached on Keystone to avoid a breakdown on the transportation negotiations. In addition, the Department of Transportation submitted its first detailed views of the transportation bill to House and Senate conferees.  The letter can be found here and reveals the administration’s priorities on policy issues to be addressed in the conference report.  The letter reiterates the earlier White House veto threat on the Keystone XL pipeline provision and expresses strong disapproval of the House-passed environmental streamlining proposals.  It is unclear what/ if any impact the administration’s letter will have on the negotiations. As AGC continues to meet with members of Congress serving on the conference committee and their staff, we urge all AGC members to contact their representative and senators to urge a quick resolution of the conference committee.  For more information please visit www.agc.org/roads. For more information, please contact Sean O’Neill at (202) 547-8892 or oneills@agc.org.