Will Boehner Continue To Block Consideration of Bill That Got 74 Votes In Senate?

“An increasing Number of House Republicans are beginning to say the House should take up the Senate bill…”

Just Today, GOP Rep. King Spokesman Said He Would Vote For Senate Transportation Bill If It Came to House Floor.  Politico Pro transportation reporter Burgess Everett tweeted, “Spokesman for Peter King (R) tells me he would vote for the Senate transportation bill IF it got to the House floor (unlikely, I know).”  [Politico Tweet, 3/28/12]

“the latest embarrassment for Boehner on an issue that he said … would be the centerpiece of House Republicans’ job creation agenda…”

Earlier this Week, GOP Reps. Dold, Bass, and Biggert Called on Boehner to Bring up the Senate Transportation Bill. In a Letter to Speaker Boehner, GOP Congressmen Bass, Biggert and Dold, wrote, “With no indication that an alternate longer-term bill will be brought to the House floor by March 31, 2012, we urge the House to reconcile any potential blue slip procedural issues and take up the House-version of S. 1813, the Mobility, Access and Progress for the 21^st century. Transportation is a priority for all Americans. Our constituents deserve to see Congress act swiftly and in a bipartisan way on this important issue.” [Letter to Speaker Boehner, 3/26/12]

“Situation is looking earily similar to previous struggles, when Congress tried to pass … the payroll tax holiday”

22 Senate Republicans Voted For Senate Bill, But Boehner Still Refuses to Bring It Up In House. On March 14, twenty-two Senate Republicans voted for final passage of the Senate’s two year highway reauthorization bill.  The Senators crossing the aisle were: Alexander (R-TN), Blunt (R-MO), Boozman (R-AR), Brown (R-MA), Chambliss (R-GA), Cochran (R-MS), Collins (R-ME), Grassley (R-IA), Heller (R-NV), Hoeven (R-ND), Hutchison (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Moran (R-KS), Murkowski (R-AK), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Snowe (R-ME), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), and Wicker (R-MS).  [Vote 48, 3/14/12]

Tens of thousands of bridges and millions of miles of roadways across the country are in a state of disrepair.

But, rather than putting Americans to work fixing those roads and bridges – and repairing crumbling train tracks, highways and sidewalks across the nation – House Republican leaders are pandering to the Tea Party.

As if putting the Tea Party ahead of efforts to repair our nation’s crumbling infrastructure wasn’t bad enough, House Republicans are risking 2.8 million jobs in the process.

I was disappointed to hear last week that House Republican leaders will pursue a three-month extension of the Highway Bill. They should be voting on the two-year transportation bill passed on an overwhelming, bipartisan vote by the Senate.

Their short-term Band-Aid bill is no solution. Communities and contractors need certainty – especially going into the summer construction season – that their projects won’t grind to a halt in three months because the House once again refuses to act.

The American people will know who to blame if chaos in the House Republican caucus costs us almost 3 million jobs. One week remains until thousands of projects around the country lock their gates and lay off their workers.

It is time for House Republican leaders to do the responsible thing: take up the Senate-passed transportation bill, which is strongly supported by Senate Republicans.

The American people are watching, and time is wasting.

While House Republicans are squandering precious time and risking American jobs, the Senate will move forward with a bill to repeal billions in subsidies to big oil companies.

Last year, Big Oil raked in $137 billion in profits – more than ever before – but still received billions in taxpayers-funded giveaways.

Even with domestic oil production at its highest level in almost a decade, prices at the pump are rising.

Oil companies are making money hand over fist. When the price of a gallon of gas goes up by a single penny, quarterly profits for the five major oil companies go up by $200 million.

Yet this country continues to give taxpayer dollars to some of the most profitable corporations in the world – corporations that don’t need our help. It’s time to end this careless corporate welfare.

The only real way to bring down prices at the pump is to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. That will take additional responsible, domestic oil exploration anhgd smart investments in clean energy technology.

The Senate will vote this evening to advance the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act.

This legislation ends more than $2 billion a year in tax breaks for Big Oil. And it invests the savings in the clean energy industry, where it will grow our economy and create jobs.

Repealing wasteful subsidies won’t cause oil and gas prices to rise. But reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil will cause prices to fall.

I hope my Republican colleagues will join Senate Democrats and repeal subsidies for Big Oil. It is time we worked together to move this nation toward its clean energy future.

But if Republicans continue to stand up for oil companies making record profits, one thing will be obvious: Republicans care less about bringing down gas prices than about helping big oil companies that don’t need the help.

Congress should pass this legislation quickly, before another taxpayer dollar is spent on wasteful handouts to Big Oil.

The Senate must also move quickly to reform our postal system. And in the coming weeks the Senate must reauthorize of the Violence Against Women Act, pass additional job creation measures and take up a crucial cybersecurity bill.

The Pentagon says passing cybersecurity legislation is the single most important action Congress can take to improve national security. That’s why I will bring a bill to the floor very soon.

Bipartisan efforts to craft comprehensive cybersecurity legislation have been ongoing for several years, but the time to act is now.

It is time for Republican colleagues who have been involved in this effort from the start to sit down at the negotiating table and help us settle on a final approach. The next few weeks will set the path ahead.

Both parties agree this legislation is a priority. And Senators interested in getting involved should act now, before time runs out.

As always, I hope Democrats and Republicans will be able to work together to forge a path forward.

BUDGET DEAL

For it...

...Before they were against it.

SENATE HIGHWAY BILL

For it...

...Before they were against it.

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

For it...

...Before they were against it.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter sent today to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, called for the immediate passage of the bipartisan Senate transportation bill that saves or creates 2.9 million jobs and is fully paid for.  In the letter, Senators Boxer and Johnson cited the urgency of acting prior to March 31^st, when the authority for funding America’s surface transportation systems expires.

Senators Boxer and Johnson copied the letter to all Members of the House of Representatives including a state-by-state chart showing the number of jobs at stake.

The letter states:

March 15, 2012

Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor:

Enclosed is a chart that clearly shows the number of jobs in every state that will be saved or created by the bipartisan Senate surface transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century (MAP-21).

This legislation passed the Senate yesterday by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 74-22.  There is an urgent need to get this bill to the President’s desk, because nearly three million jobs are at stake if Congress does not act by March 31^st, when the current surface transportation extension expires.

Nationwide, MAP-21 sustains almost 1.9 million jobs, including over 55,000 jobs in Ohio and almost 40,000 jobs in Virginia.  MAP-21 also creates up to one million additional jobs through the expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, which leverages local funds to accelerate transportation infrastructure projects.

We ask you to immediately take up and pass the Senate’s bipartisan transportation bill.  The reforms included in MAP-21 improve surface transportation programs by maintaining current funding levels for highways and public transportation, consolidating over two-thirds of all highway programs, eliminating earmarks, establishing a national freight program, improving safety oversight of public transportation, and instituting performance measures and accountability for transportation infrastructure investments. This bill is also fully paid for.

The surface transportation authorization bill is by far the biggest jobs legislation the Congress will take up this year.  It is imperative that Congress pass and the President sign into law this bill by March 31^st, because the failure to act means that the nation’s surface transportation programs will be shut down.  The nation simply cannot afford these devastating job losses.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.  We stand ready to help.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer                                                 Tim Johnson

Chairman                                                         Chairman

Committee on Environment                         Committee on Banking, Housing

and Public Works                                             and Urban Affairs

cc: All Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

“Senate Republicans have been using amendments to delay this bipartisan highway bill until Speaker Boehner could figure out a path for dealing with it in the House. Now that the Speaker has publicly signaled he is willing to buck his conservative bloc and give the Senate bill a vote, momentum is on our side. Senate Republicans have no reason to drag this out any longer.”

Fifty-six years ago, it took President Eisenhower a year to convince Congress – and the country – to make an unprecedented investment in America’s highway system.

After all, building 47,000 miles of interstate highways across the nation would require an unparalleled effort and an unprecedented investment.

The project required enough concrete to build six sidewalks to the moon. And it cost $50 billion – or the equivalent of almost half a trillion dollars today.

The project was hugely successful.

It created jobs. It connected farms and factories, tiny town and towering cities. And it allowed manufacturers and merchants to ship goods across the country for the first time in our nation’s history.

Looking back on his great effort to pass the first highway bill, President Eisenhower considered it a crowning accomplishment of his presidency.

“More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America,” he wrote in his memoir. “Its impact on the American economy – the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up – was beyond calculation.”

Fifty-six years later, Congress is once again considering transportation legislation, and an investment in this country’s crumbling roads, bridges and train tracks.

But we have the benefit of history on our side.

We know from 56 years of experience that investing in America’s roadways and railways will create and sustain jobs.

And we have no doubt that building a world-class transportation system will help us rebuild our world-class economy.

That is why one of the most conservative members of the Senate, the Senior Senator from Oklahoma, and one of the most liberal members of the Senate, the Junior Senator from California, have joined hands to advance the bipartisan transportation bill before this body.

The bill is comprised of four measures reported out of the Environment and Public Works, Banking, Commerce and Finance committees with bipartisan support. And both sides have agreed to a package of 37 amendments to this legislation.

But in today’s political climate, bipartisan support isn’t enough to keep good legislation alive.

In today’s political climate, 85 votes to begin debate on a measure aren’t enough to guarantee that measure will become law.

The transportation legislation under consideration is truly bipartisan. It will create or sustain 3 million badly needed construction jobs.

Yet, Republican leaders have wasted almost a month of the Senate’s time obstructing this valuable measure for political reasons.

Unfortunately, Democrats cannot keep construction crews working to repair 70,000 collapsing bridges across the country without Republican cooperation.

Without Republican cooperation, we cannot expand the nation’s mass transit system to accommodate tens of thousands of new riders every year.

And without Republican cooperation we cannot create and save 3 million jobs repairing crumbling pavement and building safer sidewalks.

It will take a bipartisan effort to advance this bipartisan legislation.

Frank Turner, a former Federal Highway Administrator, said work on this country’s transportation system “will never be finished because America will never be finished.”

Although the work is never finished, it is up to Congress to sustain the effort.

And unless Congress acts this month, work on highways and bridges and train tracks across the country will grind to a halt.

Unless Congress acts, the American economy will pay the price for partisan bickering.

So I am hopeful my Republican colleagues will join Democrats to put American jobs ahead of procedural games, and help us advance this vital transportation legislation.

This legislation would put 2 million hard-working Americans back on the job while at the same time investing in repairing our infrastructure.

With this bill, Republicans have an opportunity to show they can focus on job creation, and we hope they’ll seize it.  Unrelated legislation that would limit women’s access to health care has no place in a transportation bill.

Americans, especially the struggling middle class, have no appetite for political games.

As Nevada Senator Harry Reid said earlier today, “I would like to believe they [Republicans] share our goal, as Eisenhower and Reagan did, of rebuilding a world-class transportation system to support a world-class economy.”

Watch the video clip below to learn more about the bill, and how it would restore critical jobs.