House GOP Put the Brakes on the Senate's Six-Year Highway Bill with Strings Attached

House Republican leaders, looking for a way around an impasse with the Senate, are proposing a new measure that would fund transportation infrastructure programs through Oct. 29 without reviving the controversial Export-Import Bank.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks while 

flanked by House Speaker John Boehner during a news 

conference at GOP headquarters on Capitol Hill 

on July 22. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) discussed the three-month measure Tuesday with House Republicans as a possible way to resolve differences between the House and Senate, which have divergent approaches for renewing the Highway Trust Fund. Highway programs expire this Friday and are running out of money. The House already passed a five-month extension to give it time to work out a longer-term plan, while the Senate this week is expected to pass a six-year bill with three years of funding.

The goal of passing a three-month patch is to give the House enough time to produce its own long-term bill and then seek to resolve differences between that measure and the Senate’s six-year bill in the fall, Mr. Boehner said. Giving the Senate the alternative to the slightly longer bill the House has passed would also avoid putting the highway expiration at the end of the calendar year, when Congress is expected to be up against fiscal deadlines.

“I want a long-term highway bill that’s fully paid for. That’s been the goal all year and continues to be the goal,” Mr. Boehner told reporters. “We’ve got work to do. We need to buy some time in order to get that work done.”

Mr. Boehner said the three-month bill could come up for a House vote on Wednesday. If the bill passes, the House would adjourn for an August recess Wednesday, a day earlier than previously planned, a House GOP aide said. That would leave the Senate to accept one of the two House highway bills or to immediately cut off federal reimbursements to states for transportation projects. The Senate will have a hard time completing its highway bill before Thursday.

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