As the bi-partisan Senate transportation bill cues up for its first vote on Thursday and the partisan House bill gets roughed up in committee, the prospects for reconciling the bills seems dim.
In The Washington Post, Ashley Halsey III recounts the rough ride the House's 5-year transportation bill received from both parties in various committees last week, where more than a hundred efforts to amend the bill, including a dogged battle over dedicated Mass Transit funds, were beaten back.
Meanwhile, at Transportation Nation, Todd Zwillich outlines the prospects for MAP-21, the Senate's two-year transportation bill, which seems likely to have the 60 votes required to move forward.
Seeing a tough path ahead for the House bill, and the overall prospects for a reconciled bill passing this year, Halsey writes that, "That exercise will be replayed when the bill reaches the House floor, very likely with the same result. The vast differences between it and a Senate bill caused some to doubt the two could be reconciled this year."
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