President George W. Bush and the GOP congressional leadership met at the White House on April 20th and have decided that they would first agree to an overall spending level for the highway and transit reauthorization and then attempt to appoint conferees. It has been reported that the President is holding firm on his veto threat of any bill over the $256 billion level proposed by the Administration. Congressional leaders are pushing for a significantly higher number. The Senate-passed bill (S. 1072) carries a price-tag of about $318 billion, while the House-passed bill would cost about $284 billion (H.R. 3550).

Some in Washington believe that lawmakers would settle on a $300 billion bill but that if the White House is involved in the final decision and is willing to compromise, the ultimate spending level might be around $270 billion to $275 billion. Resolution of the funding level is at least a week away.

In an April 6 letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee Chairman Christopher S. Bond (R-Missouri) wrote that the Senate funding levels "are the minimum that should be included" in the final product. This is viewed as a sign that they will continue to fight all attempts to lower the Senate level.

Although there was no official word on whether Democrats or even the GOP authors of the reauthorization bills would be included in the final decision-making process, neither group was invited to the White House meeting and both groups are pushing the Senate's $318 billion funding level.

White House involvement is viewed as an assurance that Congressional Republicans will not put the President in the potentially difficult position of having to veto the bill and then watch as Congress overrides it in an election year. It is possible that the GOP leadership could insist that a provision from the House bill known as a "reopener" be included in the final product. White House officials object to the reopener provision because they do not believe it makes the bill a six-year bill. Under the provision, all apportioned highway program dollars would be cut off at the end of fiscal year 2005 unless Congress has written a new law that increases the minimum guarantee of funds going back to the states above the 90.5 percent included in the underlying bill.

The agreement between the White House and GOP leaders is also a move that presumably would allow some negotiating to continue despite Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-South Dakota) refusal to allow conferees to be appointed until he is guaranteed Democratic participation and that Senate conferees will support the $318 billion funding level. He would like conferees to “pre-conference” the bill to ensure Democratic participation, but has held short of insisting on such. Senator Frist has indicated they would not pre-conference the bill.

Short Term Extension

The current extension of the transportation programs expires on April 30, and even if conferees were appointed this week, staffers did little reconciling over the recess, saying they could not get the bill to Bush by then. Both chambers are expected to consider another two-month extension of TEA 21 during the week of April 26, although some lawmakers said the length of the extension might still be up in the air as a number of Senators are seeking only a 30-day extension.

Senator Daschle has said he could support another extension only if ongoing discussions among House and Senate staffers to reconcile their two bills are "becoming productive." It is commonly thought that Daschle, who is in the middle of a tight re-election campaign, would never allow the program to shut down, as it would result in the furlough of thousands and thousands of jobs and could put future projects into disarray.