House and Senate transportation staffs will meet on May 26 and possibly May 27 for their first meetings since an agreement in the Senate allowing the start of the reauthorization of TEA-21 conference. House conferees will not be named until at least June 2 when lawmakers return from the Memorial Day recess. But if history is an indicator, the conferees in the House delegation are all but pre-determined by those transportation, tax, and budget writers who shaped the House-passed six-year reauthorization (H.R. 3550). Staff meetings are not expected to finalize the biggest issue, the monetary size of the bill; which varies from the $256 billion figure proposed by the administration, to the $284 billion number passed by the House, to the $318 billion passed by the Senate (S. 1072). These first meetings are expected to resolve only the “low hanging fruit” issues and to identify all outstanding issues.

Another issue not likely to be decided at these first meetings is the fate of "re-opener" language in the House bill that would shut down major portions of the highway program within two years unless additional money was found to pay for the program. Some key Senators have objected to the language, stating that at the Senate-passed-$318 billion-level the re-opener language is not necessary. The administration opposes the language too stating that it amounts to a two-year bill, not a long-term bill that will provide stability to state transportation programs.

We do not expect this to be a quick process. In 1998 the conference for TEA-21 took 10 weeks to finalize.