Still not on track

House Speaker John Boehner says that if the conference committee trying to hammer out a surface transportation bill can't work out their disagreements by the June 30 deadline, he will put forth yet another extension of the existing transportation bill to fund programs until after the November elections. It is looking as if he may have to do just that. The 47-member committee of representatives and senators seems unable to compromise.

The existing transportation bill, passed in 2005, expired in 2009 and has been temporarily extended nine times. The last time was March 29, when House Republicans pushed through a 90-day extension because of opposition to a bill within their own ranks and from most Democrats. That extension expires in 12 days. House Republicans have backed a five-year, $260 billion plan, but even though it emerged from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, it has never made it to the House floor for a full vote. The Senate has passed a two-year, $109 billion bill. The House-Senate conference committee is charged with coming up with something that enough members of both parties can accept.

And that is looking as impossible as it turned out to be in March.

Many Democrats, mass transit advocates and other critics view the House bill as a transportation and environmental disaster. Among other things, it would provide 21 percent less inflation-adjusted spending than the 2005 bill, slash environmental oversight and pay for some projects out of revenue from public land newly opened to oil and gas drilling. The Democrats also oppose a Republican persistent attempt to mandate immediate approval of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport tar sands oil from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. A large proportion of House Republicans in the tea party wing don't like the bill because they don't think it cuts spending enough.

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