Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic colleagues have given Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
45 days to negotiate a long-term transportation funding bill, threatening to block a short-term funding measure if that's what McConnell tries to push. In a floor speech Wednesday, Reid
blasted McConnell for the tactic he's clearly employing on this bill.
"This is straight out of the Republicans' playbook, manufactured crisis playbook," the Democratic leader said. "Republicans will drag their feet until the very last minute, refusing to work with us on a long-term solution to our nation's infrastructure woes. And then, when the deadline is imminent, the Republican leader will offer yet another short-term extension to stave off another disaster of his own making." […]
Reid added on Wednesday that Republicans "have refused to work" with Democrats on a long-term bill, saying that "Republicans see the federal highway program and trust fund as a sort of hot potato: stay away from it, it should never be dealt with."
The last stop-gap funding bill for transportation was passed just before Memorial Day recess, and expires at the end of July. Because of the upcoming July 4th recess, there's not very many working days left before that expiration, only about two weeks' worth. But here's the Democrats' dilemma—let transportation funding end at the end of July, and with it a summer's worth of projects that just got ramped up, or agree, again for another stop-gap measure that lasts a few months. It will be a major test of Democratic resolve to force McConnell's hand on this one. So far, they're hanging tough.