Members of the House and Senate Conferees are scrambling to complete the surface transportation reauthorization. Negotiations hit a snag earlier in the month after House and Senate leaders wasted a week playing the blame game.
Now, with less than one week until the June 30th deadline, negotiations are moving forward. There is even talk of a tentative agreement on the highway portion of the bill, though no specific details have been released.
Discussions through the weekend are expected to focus on FMCSA safety title, transit and critical funding. Once these “smaller” issues are resolved, officials say they will tackle the more controversial issues such as coal ash and the Keystone pipeline.
Regardless of the progress made this weekend, officials speculate an extension will be necessary to complete the bill.