The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee this week marked up its version of a six-year federal highway program reauthorization, with committee Chair Bill Schuster (R, PA) deftly persuading committee members to talk about, but not offer more than 150 amendments brought to the markup table. Ultimately, the panel approved a manager's amendment that included few tweaks to the bill as unveiled earlier this week. 

Schuster said the bill will be on the floor next week or the week after, depending on when he and Ways & Means Committee Chair Paul Ryan can work out how to pay for at least the first three years of the bill, similar to how the Senate handled its bill. Schuster says it's a bad idea to go to the floor without a spending title, and acknowledged several of the "pay-for's" in the bill will similar if not identical to those in the Senate bill. 

While the mark up clears the way for floor action, the House is faced with having to approve yet another short-term continuation of current funding, which expires October 29. That extension is expected to run through mid-December to give the House time to approve a highway package, reconcile it with the Senate's approved bill and let both chambers approve the conference report before it can go to President Obama's desk. 

Conference with the Senate bill will be complicated by the highway package's status as a "trains that's moving," a bill onto which a lot of unrelated policy amendments will try to be attached. Rep. Kevin Brady (R, TX), the likely successor to Rep. Paul Ryan as chair of the Ways & Means Committee, will try and convince conferees to include his move to make permanent the federal research and development tax break. In the battle of how to pay for at least the first three years of the package, Ryan's hope of using a one-time repatriation of U.S. companies stashed overseas will also likely be in play, particularly as Ryan continues to negotiate with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D, NY) over not only how to pay for the reauthorized programs, but how much will the bill will ultimately dedicate to highway programs. 

The bill as unveiled by the committee leadership last week does not increase spending on federal highway, bridge or urban commuter system construction and repair, but authorizes the Department of Transportation to spend $325 billion that adjust for inflation. Of the total, about $260 billion is directed to highway and bridge projects, with about $55 billion going to transit projects, and the rest dedicated to bus and truck safety programs at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

As in the Senate, Democrats are not happy with the effective freeze in highway program spending; similarly, only the first three years of the bill are paid for - as in the Senate - meaning the next Congress will again have to wrestle with how to pay for the highway programs. The committee expects the Way& Means Committee to come up with the offsets to pay for the bill, and it's expected those "pay-for's" will track what's in the Senate's approved bill. 

The bill includes efficiencies to be imposed on DOT, including consolidation or elimination of five or six offices within the department, making environmental reviews and permitting faster and more targeted, and creating a Nationally Significant Freight & Projects Program. 

Not included in the bill is language that would allow for heavier or longer trucks on interstate highways. Committee member Rep. Reid Ribble (R,WI) who has introduced HR 3488 to permit states to allow trucks weighing up to 91,000 pounds with six axles to operate on interstate highways within their borders, as do Maine and Vermont now. Ribble opted not to bring his bill into the markup out of deference to committee Chair Bill Schuster's (R, PA) desire to move the bill quickly through full committee. Ribble, however, will offer his heavy truck language as an amendment on the House floor. Ribble was successful in getting language into the bill allowing emergency vehicles which exceed the current 80,000-pound federal highway weight limit - unchanged since 1982 - to operate legally on interstate highways. 

The bill does include an extension of the December 31, deadline for railroads to install positive train control (PTC) technology allowing trains to be controlled remotely.

EPA says its rule will withstand court challenges, and 15 states and a number of environmental groups are expected to line up with the agency in defending the rule. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says opponents have tried eight times to overturn CO2 control rules, and have failed in every case.