The closer we get to planned action on the reauthorization of TEA-21, the more elusive success appears.

On the Senate side, we have reliable reports that a meeting among members of the Senate Finance Committee early in the week of January 26 resulted in strong objections from some committee members to the proposal to fund the Senate version of the bill through a variety of loophole closing measures and new assumptions about receipts to the Highway Trust Fund. The proposal, slated for a mark-up on February 2 at the Finance Committee, was developed over many months by staffers seeking to come up with $255 billion for the highway portion of the bill while preserving the 2.86 - cent/gallon resource for transit. Apparently, at least three Senators - two of them GOP members -- indicated strong objections to the "smoke and mirrors" approach. Reportedly one GOP Senator said -- "I'd vote for a gas tax increase before I voted for this." That particular Senator is known as a very strong opponent of gas tax increases. One key GOP Senator who was in the meeting told a friend of ours "no way in hell the highway bill gets done this year." The Finance Committee still has a mark-up on its schedule for next week, but we will not be surprised to see that pushed-off again.

Additional interesting news from the Senate is that Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) is considering trying to attach the entire energy bill, which narrowly failed passage last year, to the TEA-21 reauthorization when it reaches the Senate floor. While one assumes Domenici is contemplating this because the surface transportation bill is viewed as a popular measure, it is hard to see how his approach would help get the TEA-21 re-write done. Quite the contrary.

Over on the House side, it is still unclear that the Committee on Ways and Means and House Leadership have arrived at a meeting of the minds with the T&I Committee leadership on an overall funding number and how to get to it. We are told it was the House Leadership that prevailed upon Chairman Young to pull the plug on his planned February 3 mark-up within a few hours after having announced it. This would seem to indicate they are not interested in having a plan to spend $375 billion hanging out there if there's no way to pay for it.

A final note of interest. The House and Senate GOP members and leaders are having a retreat this weekend in Philadelphia. It is entirely possible a pow-wow during the retreat will decide the fate of the TEA-21 reauthorization.

Stay tuned for further developments.