WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Senate is slowly working on a massive six-year, $318 billion highway spending measure with Senate GOP leaders facing strong opposition from a few fiscal conservatives concerned with the massive federal budget deficit that looms large over the process.
Despite having the sort of broad bipartisan support typically afforded to a bill that provides millions of dollars for the home states and districts of members, a small group of Republicans, led by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., have slowed action on the measure to a near standstill by objecting to consideration of amendments and refusing to negotiate with the sponsors of the bill.
Gregg has openly criticized the cost of the bill reauthorizing the existing transportation spending law, accusing Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, of hiding the real cost of the bill with accounting gimmicks.
It remains unclear whether Gregg is in negotiations with the GOP leaders shepherding the measure through the Senate, but with only floor debate and no votes scheduled for Monday, the future of the bill remains uncertain.
Republican Senate aides dismissed Gregg's action as little more than an attempt to gain greater funding for his state in the bill, but supporters of the measure are nevertheless taking pains to present it in a positive economic light.
"We've funded the programs in a way that enables every state to have more transportation money," Grassley said Friday.
Grassley also praised the money spent in the bill as translating "into more jobs" and "enhanced economic development for our cities and counties."
On the Senate floor Monday, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., praised how the bill would address the nation's "infrastructure deficit" along with creating a million new jobs.
"The economic implications could not be more consequential," said Daschle.
The fact that the measure is being presented as a jobs bill by supporters is unlikely to engender support from fiscal conservatives in the GOP, unlikely fans of so-called "make-work" legislation who are already angered by a budget deficit they view as driven by out of control domestic spending.
Another potential problem for the transportation measure is a plan by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to attempt to attach a scaled-down version of the GOP's failed energy bill.
That additional spending could bring more opposition to the fold, as the larger energy measure was defeated by Democrats and Republicans opposed to the estimated $10 billion in pork spending included.
It is unclear exactly what portions of that controversial bill -- which was approved by the House but failed to get Senate approval late last year -- are to be included in the revised package offered as an amendment.
With an expected price tag of $18 billion, down from the original $31 billion, the only sure thing is that the ethanol subsidies in the bill will remain intact, as they are key to gaining the support of Midwestern Democrats, including Daschle.
The package will also reportedly not include a provision limiting liability for manufacturers of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether that proved deadly to the larger bill.
What this will mean for House-Senate negotiations on a final bill remains unclear as that provision is a priority for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
House Republican aides indicated Friday that they would likely try to attach the entire energy package to the House version of the highway spending measure if Domenici is successful, something that would further complicate the future of the bill.
GOP leaders are expected to seek approval this week of a four-month extension of existing federal transportation funding law -- which expires on Feb. 29 -- as they try to iron out differences on their measure.
House and Senate aides told United Press International that while House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, plans to move his own counterpart to the Senate bill, differences remain among House GOP leaders about how expensive a measure to promote.
A measure costing between $285 billion to $310 billion is reportedly under consideration by House appropriators, down from Young's originally proposed $385 billion measure.
The transportation bill also faces uncertain support from the White House, which may have problems with the way the measure is funded.
The Bush administration has proposed spending $256 billion on the bill, issuing a veto threat last week on Congress' plan if it violated a set of broad fiscal principles including no related tax increases or increased spending from general budget revenues.
President Bush drew condemnation from Young and other members of the House Transportation Committee from both parties when he called the federal highway program an "entitlement" and an "interesting test of fiscal discipline on both sides of the aisle," in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
"He is taunting the Congress in order to regain his right-wing wacko base who would rather build roads in Iraq than in this country," Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said in a statement.
On the Senate side, during an attack on the Bush administrations fiscal priorities, Daschle said that he was "troubled" by those who say that a bill that would result in one million new jobs is too expensive and should be pared back.
He added that few complained about the cost of last year's $87 billion supplemental spending measure aimed at funding U.S. efforts in Iraq.
"I didn't hear one comment from either side of the isle about how expensive that bill was," he said.
