Funding for the nation’s crumbling roads and highways is about to run out in two weeks, and Congress is in disarray on how to prevent it: House Republicans are pushing a plan that GOP senators oppose, Democrats are scrambling for a unified response, and both parties are grasping for a way out.

The most likely outcome, as always, is the path of least resistance: another stopgap extension for the trust fund that would set up the same highway cliff at the end of the year. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who promised to end the constant cycle of legislative cliffs, is making a last-ditch effort to avoid another punt, as well as another round of election-year votes on expensive highway bills.


To that end, McConnell hosted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and two top senators on transportation policy Wednesday to discuss how to pay for a highway bill that runs for at least two years — part of a ramped-up outreach to Senate Democrats on a plan to shore up the sputtering Highway Trust Fund.

“It’s going to be very hard to pass something that doesn’t have bipartisan support,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Senate Republican. “We want to get as many Democrats on board as we can, and I think there is a good chance that that will happen.”

Senate Republicans want to veer away from the course House Republicans are plotting: simply extending highway funding until mid-December, which would buy time for an international tax overhaul but also set up another year-end crisis deadline on funding for roads and bridges.

Though the House GOP strategy easily passed that chamber Wednesday, Senate Republicans are eager to push the next highway deadline until after November 2016, with a number of blue-state GOP senators running for reelection and four in their ranks running for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Wednesday morning huddle in McConnell’s office with the Kentucky Republican, Reid, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) didn’t appear to produce a clear way forward for the Senate. McConnell pushed for a longer-term highway bill that would run multiple years, and he’s been given a list of ways to pay for at least a two-year highway bill from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

“We’re all on the same page, we all want the long-term bill, we all want the aggressive bill,” said Inhofe, who described the meeting as “excellent.” “We’re putting together a support group from the top down.”

Senate negotiators are mulling about a dozen different potential ways to pay for a long-term bill that, if taken together, could provide nearly $80 billion — enough to keep highway projects running for at least five years. But the biggest revenue raiser — a change to the federal employee retirement plan that would bring in about $30 billion — is a nonstarter for Democrats.

Democrats have vowed to oppose any bill that includes the controversial retirement changes, and both Reid and Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have come out swinging on the issue in recent days.

“If they come through with this ‘We’re just going to take it out of federal employee pensions,’ they’re never going to move that bill, and I hope they know that,” Durbin said. “If they want to work with us, there are things we can do together.”

Some GOP lawmakers have said privately that they are also uncomfortable with the proposed changes after the idea was introduced at a Tuesday caucus lunch.

Taking the retirement pay-for out of the equation would leave senators far less to negotiate with — about $50 billion, according to a list of offsets obtained by POLITICO — unless they find cash elsewhere. But that is still a good chunk of money and could fund at least a three-year bill, shelving the highway issue through the 2016 election as McConnell desires.

Offsets proposed by House Republicans for their short-term extension are being considered. Other ideas Senate leaders are weighing include a hodgepodge of pay-fors related to the Federal Reserve, Social Security payments for felons and the federal petroleum reserve.

Whatever plan they cobble together, Senate Republicans know they have to speed up their pace on the highway dilemma. The GOP-led House fired the first salvo Wednesday, with an overwhelming 312-119 vote to patch up the ailing highway fund until Dec. 18. And the more Senate GOP leaders drag their feet on unveiling their own highway bill, the more the House Republicans’ year-end strategy could gain traction.

And that House GOP proposal has a significant potential Democratic Senate ally in New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who opened the door to that option last week. He claimed there would be “broad support” among Senate Democrats, although Schumer indicated Wednesday that he would consider other options.

“It’s a very good way to go,” Schumer said. “But let’s face it — there’s a lot of details that would have to be worked out in tax reform. So if there’s another, more immediate proposal that would be long-term and have a robust funding increase, it’s something I’d look at.”

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), one of the lead authors of the Senate’s six-year highway bill, also wouldn’t rule out the House plan.

“That’s pretty good,” Carper said about the idea of a bipartisan tax revamp to fund highways later this year. “Why we’d walk away from that, I’m not sure.”

Still, a handful of Senate Democrats have been much less amenable to the short-term option.

Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, has been deeply skeptical of short-term funding, denouncing it as bad policy. And Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) firmly said this week that “under no condition” would he vote for a highway bill that runs just through the end of the year.

“We’ve done this several times. What happens is, they make patches right before recess and use that as a way to get people to do short-term,” Menendez said. “We cannot get projects done, we cannot get people hired, and we have a system that is consistently in disrepair and falling further and further behind.”

And despite the optimism from House Republicans and some of their Senate Democratic allies, top Senate Republicans don’t think doing international tax reform is likely before December ends.

“If that could happen, would be great,” Thune said. “But most of us are pretty skeptical that we’re gonna get any significant tax reform done before the end of the year that doesn’t include significant new spending initiatives. Democrats have a very different view of what tax reform is like.”

Meanwhile, the now-expired Export-Import Bank could complicate the highway mix.

Supporters of the controversial export agency, particularly in the Senate, are pressuring McConnell to allow a reauthorization measure to hitch a ride on the highway bill, hoping that the bank could be revived in tandem with the must-pass transportation measure.

But conservative forces in both chambers are planning to pull out all the stops to ensure that the bank — which many Republicans denounce as a form of corporate welfare — stays dead. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) argued that Ex-Im opponents had the momentum, noting that a majority of Senate Republicans and “likely” a majority of the House GOP don’t want the bank reauthorized.

“We think we’re in a pretty strong position,” Jordan said. “And oh, by the way … we’re 15 days past when the reauthorization was supposed to take place. That’s a good thing.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.