The House named 63 conferees to the surface transportation reauthorization May 26 after defeating a motion that would have required them to support an additional $11 billion in funding than passed by the House.

The House voted 189 to 223 to kill the motion that would have directed House conferees to insist on the $283.9 billion in the House bill (H.R. 3) plus additional funds needed to increase the guaranteed rate of return for all states to at least 92 percent.

The Senate also named conferees yesterday - appointing 16 Republican conferees and 14 Democratic conferees - after passing the seventh short-term extension (H.R. 2566) of highway, transit, and highway safety programs. President Bush is expected to sign the measure before the May 31 expiration of the current stopgap measure.

Senate rules provide that the signature of each conferee is valid for decisions relating to the entire bill. The entire membership of the Environment and Public Works Committee was named, plus certain representatives from the Banking, Commerce, Finance and Budget Committees. The Senate conferees are Senators Inhofe, Warner, Bond, Voinovich, Chafee, Murkowski, Thune, DeMint, Isakson, Vitter, Grassley, Hatch, Shelby, Allard, Stevens, Lott, Jeffords, Baucus, Lieberman, Boxer, Carper, Clinton, Lautenberg, Obama, Conrad, Inouye, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Reed, and Johnson.

Over in the House, there are 37 Republicans and 25 Democrats representing the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Budget, Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, Government Reform, Homeland Security, Judiciary, Resources, Rules, Science, and Ways and Means committees. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was also named a roving conferee who can sit in on all negotiations.

Conferees representing the transportation panel are: Young, Oberstar, and Reps. Tom Petri (R-Wisconsin), Sherwood Boehlert (R-New York), Howard Coble (R-North Carolina), John J. Duncan (R-Tennessee.), John L. Mica (R-Florida), Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan), Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama), Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), Richard Baker (R-Louisiana.), Gary Miller (R-California), Robin Hayes (R-North Carolina), Robert Simmons (R-Connecticut), Henry Brown (R-South Caroline), Sam Graves (R-Missouri), Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), Nick Rahall (D-West Virginia), Peter A. DeFazio (D-Oregon), Jerry Costello (D-Illinois), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Jerry Nadler (D-New York), Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), Corrine Brown (D-Florida), Bob Filner (D-California), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Texas), Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi), Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), and Ellen Tauscher (D-California).

Conferees representing the House Budget Committee are Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), ranking member John Spratt (D-South Carolina), and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida).

Conferees representing the House Ways and Means Committee are Chairman Bill Thomas (R-California), ranking member Charles Rangel (D-New York), and Rep. Jim McCrery (R-Louisiana.).

Conferees representing the House Science Committee are ranking member Bart Gordon (D-Tennessee.), and Reps. Vernon Ehlers (R-Michigan) and Dave Reichert (R-Washington).

Conferees representing the House Rules Committee are Chairman David Dreier (R-California), and Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) and Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts).

Conferees representing the House Resources Committee are Chairman Richard Pombo (R-California), and Reps. Greg Waldon (R-Oregon) and Ron Kind (D-Wisconsin).

Conferees representing the House Judiciary Committee are Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), ranking member John Conyers (D-Michigan), and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

Conferees representing the House Government Reform Committee are Chairman Tom Davis (R-Virginia), ranking member Henry Waxman (D-California), and Todd Platts (R-Pennsylvania).

Conferees representing the House Energy and Commerce Committee are Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member John Dingell (D-Michigan), and Rep. Charles Pickering (R-Mississippi).

Conferees representing the House Education and the Workforce Committee are Reps. John Kline (R-Minnesota), Ric Keller (R-Florida) and John Barrow (D-Georgia).

Conferees representing the Homeland Security Committee are Chairman Christopher Cox (California), ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), and Rep. Dan Lungren (R-California).

Members will return to town the week of June 6th when Congress returns from a week-long break.

Congress is expected to pass a month-long extension of current surface transportation programs before the Memorial Day break begins at the end of this week. That gives lawmakers one more month to complete the conference committee on the long-term reauthorization bill by the July 4th recess. The Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees met yesterday, taking the first step toward reaching a compromise on funding for a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill (H.R. 3). The two are trying to compare the funding provisions in the House $283.9 billion highway, transit, and highway safety reauthorization, with those in the Senate $295 billion measure. The administration has made it clear that it will not support any measure higher than the House level.

While conferees still have not been named, the month-long extension will be voted on in the House on May 26 and possibly in the Senate on the same day.

The House passed the $29.75 billion fiscal year 2006 Energy and Water appropriations bill yesterday with a vote of 416-13. One provision in the bill may mean that future Army Corps of Engineers projects will proceed at a slower pace by limiting the agency’s spending flexibility by exerting tighter control over how the corps transfers money from one project to another and allocates federal dollars for multi-year contracts..

Under current practice for example, the corps may issue a $300 million contract with congressional appropriations of $50 million a year until the project is done. A contractor could proceed with the project that year and use its own money once the $50 million had been spent, with the expectation of being reimbursed. The corps has traditionally done this by shifting money from one project to another. The language approved yesterday could prevent work from progressing once a project passes that $50 million mark, stalling projects and resulting in unnecessary and costly project starts and stops, according to critics.

In addition, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson (R-Ohio) and ranking member Pete Visclosky (D-Indiana) inserted a measure into the bill that would restrict the corp's ability to divert money from one project to another.

A last minute compromise by a group of 14 moderate Senators will prevent Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) from implenting the "nuclear option" he was seeking. Frist's move would have taken away the minority's ability to filibuster judicial nominations. Last night, seven Republicans and seven Democrats signed a "memorandum of understanding" in which the Republicans pledged not to back Frist's parliamentary attempt at the nuclear option and Democrats pledged to stop blocking three previously filibustered nominees. In the MOU, Democrats retain the ability to filibuster nominees in "extraordinary circumstances" - the definition of which is left open to each individual senator.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will mark up a Head Start reauthorization bill on Thursday which will contain some differences with a measure passed by the House (H.R. 2123) at the beginning of the month. The House bill would require Head Start operators to align their curricula with their own state academic standards. However, at most, the Senate measure would require operators to align their curricula only with their state's pre-school standards.

Like the House bill, the Senate bill (not yet numbered) does not contain a White House proposal that some states take over their local centers. The reauthorization has been stalled for more than two years and it is still unclear if the partisan differences holding it up can be solved this year.

The House will continue to move forward on appropriations work this week as the Senate inches closer to invoking the "nuclear option" to end filibusters of judicial nominations. Tomorrow the House will vote on a $29.75 billion fiscal year 2006 Energy and Water appropriations bill that easily cleared committee last week and includes controversial provisions on nuclear waste and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fiscal management. The legislation places new restrictions on the Army Corps process for shifting or "reprogramming" funds between projects. The bill matches the president's request and is $131.7 million below the FY '05 appropriation.

Also on the House's agenda before the Memorial Day break are appropriations bills funding military construction, veterans’ programs and military health care programs. Last week, the House passed a $31.9 billion Homeland Security appropriations bill and a $26.1 billion Interior-Environment spending bill.

The Senate Appropriations Committee does not plan to start marking up bills until June. In the meantime, Senate debate continues to focus on judicial nominations while a group of moderate Senators - led by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) and John McCain (R-Arizona) - scramble for a last minute compromise that is acceptable to both sides.

Assuming a deal is not reached, the Senate is expected to launch an all-night debate on the nomination for Priscilla Owen nomination and the nuclear option this evening, followed by a cloture vote sometime tomorrow. If the cloture vote fails, Frist will then immediately move to change the Senate rules.