Oklahoman: Highway bill clears Senate hurdle

The Oklahoman - Chris Casteel

Sen. Jim Inhofe's bill promising a renewed national focus on highway and transit needs and $4.2 billion in road-building money for Oklahoma faced an uncertain future on Thursday after clearing the Senate with bipartisan support.

The House is on a recess that lasts until early September, and Republican leaders already have said that they don't like the Senate bill.

The $350 billion Senate legislation was approved 65 to 34 on Thursday, with support from 38 Republicans, 25 Democrats and two independents.

In an interview Thursday, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, said he expects the House to develop its own legislation when lawmakers return in September and that the funding ultimately may be part of a larger deal with the White House on tax reform.

The measure co-authored by Inhofe, Cole said, "is a six-year bill with a three-year funding stream. ... It's really designed to get past the Obama presidency."

Inhofe, R-Tulsa, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., wrote the parts of the six-year legislation that focus on repairing obsolete bridges, easing freight traffic congestion in the nation’s worst bottlenecks and giving state transportation officials more certainty about major projects.

Most of the funding would come from the federal tax on gasoline, but revenues from the tax have been declining for years.

The Senate’s tax-writing committee and GOP leaders agreed to augment the gas tax money with the sale of oil from the nation’s strategic reserve and some tweaks to the tax code.

Online: The Oklahoman