The expected passage of a sixty day extension to the existing TEA-21 legislation bogged down in the Senate after it cruised through the House Wednesday. Senator Christopher Bond (R-Missouri) placed a hold on the bill in response to Minority Leader Tom Daschle's (D-South Dakota) threat of holding up the new transit bill in conference. Daschle has expressed in public his desire to see Democrats treated differently during House/Senate conferences on pending legislation. Bond, in turn, expressed he was "outraged" Daschle was preventing a move to conference on the two different transporation bills already passed (S 1072 and HR 3550) by their respective members, according to CQ Today.

The Senate version called for $318 billion in spending, while the House version was estimated at $284 billion. The administration is holding the line at $256 billion, but unless a reathorization of the existing law is passed immediately, funding for surface transportation programs will begin to expire on Friday.