House, Senate move toward passage of transportation patch

House Republicans are weighing a three-month highway funding extension that could offer Congress a way out of an impasse days ahead of a crucial deadline.

But these efforts could be moot, as the House is unlikely to vote on the bill, according to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California). The issue of contention is the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, an issue unrelated to transportation.

Supporters in the business industry said the bank was necessary for competitiveness in the U.S., but conservatives claim it is just corporate welfare and those objections pushed the vote on Monday far beyond 10 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, vowed on Tuesday to also pass a highway trust fund extension with three years of funding in the hope the House would follow suit in coming months. Like the Senate bill, the House bill seeks to curb perceived abuse of inter partes review and post-grant review proceedings by hedge funds, but does so by targeting specific practices, in contrast to the Senate bill’s approach of giving the Patent and Trademark Office broad discretion not to institute proceedings. To raise its three years of funding, the bill would, among other things: reduce a dividend that the Federal Reserve pays banks for the money they deposit into the Fed system, index customs fees to rise with inflation and sell 100 million barrels of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve.

In a rare Sunday session, the Senate debated the $337 billion, six-year proposal to fund the Highway Trust Fund.

The Senate measure, H.R. 22, would reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank, whose charter expired June 30.

The House has already passed an extension that would carry on transportation funding until almost the end of the year. Take it (the Senate’s DRIVE Act), amend it, send it back… we’ll get it done.

“That’s because we don’t have to comply with all the same set of federal regulations”, Lee said.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said a short-term bill would move “quickly”, signaling that the minority party won’t create roadblocks.

The clock is ticking for Congress to come up with a solution to fund repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges.

The three-month bill could be acceptable as an alternative, offering a chance to regroup when lawmakers return in the fall. The lifeline until October. 29 is expected to pass the House today followed by quick action in the Senate.

AAA Spokesman Michael Green says, “A long-term bill can do something about reducing the potholes, the bad traffic and the unsafe conditions that many of our motors face everyday”.

It will “hopefully be the last short-term extension in a long time”, said Sen. “Make a decision. Give us long-term funding”. The Hamilton Project, an initiative of the Brookings Institution, suggests having the gas tax fluctuate inversely with the price of gasoline, so drivers pay less tax when fuel prices are high.