ROADS/BRIDGES: House Majority Leader rebuffs Senate transportation bill with Ex-Im bank renewal
July 28, 2015
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the House will not vote on the Senate's six-year highway transportation bill.
Even though the transportation bill is considered a “must pass” legislative measure, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he would not accept the Senate’s $350 billion transportation bill.
"We're not taking up the Senate bill," McCarthy said in a public statement, adding that the House intends to start a five-week summer recess and there was too little time to take up the complex, 1,030-page Senate bill, which authorizes spending for six years but only contains specific funding for about three years worth of projects.
The major roadblock preventing negotiation between the House and the Senate is the provision to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank that's included in the Senate bill.
McCarthy instead approved a House-passed five-month extension of transportation funding aimed at buying time for a long-term deal in the autumn.
"Time is running out to get this bill through Congress," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor. "We're up against a deadline at the end of the week. Jobs are on the line."
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