The Senate
cleared another procedural hurdle Monday night, lumbering toward a vote on a long-term highway-funding bill. It voted 64-29 to add an amendment to renew funding for the Export-Import Bank, a point of contention among Republicans and the purported cause of
Ted Cruz's floor meltdown last week. That puts the Senate a step closer to getting this bill done before the July 31 expiration of highway funding, but not close enough for House leadership.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has flatly rejected the idea of the House taking up the Senate bill. One issue is the Ex-Im bank, with the more extreme members of the Republican caucus (the ones who rule Speaker John Boehner's world) opposed to it. So the Senate bill is out, as far as the House is concerned, and even though it has already passed a five-month extension, Boehner is floating bringing up yet another short-term bill to fund highways for three months.
The alternative House bill would face a vote before the chamber adjourns Thursday for its August recess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has so far insisted on his approach, which would provide enough funding to avoid a fight during next year’s elections.
The House bill also includes language to use $3 billion from a Veterans Affairs program established last year to cover costs associated with other outside care programs.
Tuesday morning, though, Boehner
ratcheted up the pressure by telling members that recess would begin at 5:00 PM Wednesday, and
seems confident that the House can bring up and pass this shorter term bill that quickly.
In other words, Boehner is going to jam the Senate, perhaps payback for when McConnell tried to do the same to him a few months ago on the Patriot Act. The House will pass this bill, perhaps just to show McConnell that they can pass a bill in a little over a day's time, forward it to the Senate and leave town. That would leave McConnell no alternative except to pass the House bill or let highway funding abruptly end. That would mean all of his members going home for a month to get yelled at for making road and bridge projects shut down.
This game of chicken was a relatively common experience when Democrats held the Senate and Harry Reid and Boehner had good reason to work at cross purposes. It was a party thing and therefore expected. But when McConnell took over the Senate, all this was supposed to end. He and Boehner were supposed to prove that a Republican Congress could govern. So much for that.