Senate negotiators announced Tuesday that they had reached a tentative agreement on a multi-year, multi-billion bill to fund highway construction ahead of a deadline at the end of the month when the current funding expires.
But quick passage of the agreement will likely be complicated by a pair of unrelated but contentious issues two Republican presidential candidates want to debate as part of the bill — funding for Planned Parenthood and the Export-Import Bank.
“Senators from both parties know that a long-term highway bill is in the best interest of our country. So we’ll continue working together to get a good one passed,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor about the agreement he had struck with Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, the top Democrat on the public works committee.
Boxer called the agreement a “breakthrough” but neither she nor McConnell provided details of the bill or where its funding comes from, something that could be a sticking point.
In fact, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid cautioned just after McConnell spoke that he and other Democrats had not seen the agreement and would need time to review it and decide whether they can support it.
“We haven’t seen the bill. There can be an agreement but until you put things in writing they’re a lot different,” Reid said.
Reid said he would meet with his full caucus Tuesday and also gauge the Democratic heads of other committees that share jurisdiction over the multi-faceted bill that provides funding for highways, bridges and other infrastructure projects and that also includes thorny transportation policy changes that have been difficult to resolve.
A procedural vote Tuesday afternoon to begin debate on the bill was pushed back two hours so senators would have time to review it.
If senators get on the bill, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky wants to offer an amendment blocking funding for Planned Parenthood, after a controversial video surfaced last week showing an executive with the organization discussing the use of fetal tissue from abortions for medical research.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wants to block an amendment by supporters of the recently expired Export-Import Bank, who are trying to revive the federally-funded institution that makes loans to companies overseas to buy American products.
Cruz and other conservatives see it as a government handout from a bank they see as corrupt. McConnell has promised bank supporters they could get an amendment vote on the highway bill and it’s expected to have more than 60 supporters.
Both Paul and Cruz have pledged to go to the mat on their respective issues so it’s unclear how long it will take to work through the bill.
If the Senate passes the bill, it’s unlikely the House, which passed a substantially different highway bill, would quickly accept it. That means the two chambers would probably agree on a short term bill to keep road projects funded until after the August congressional recess.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy urged the Senate to pass the extension of the highway program that the House approved recently, which authorizes spending for roads and bridges through mid-December.
“I think the Senate should take up our short term bill as is and pass that.”
McCarthy told reporters he was withholding judgment on the Senate deal, but said he preferred a long term package that fully paid for the program.