Showing their first sign of compromise in months, House conferees of the surface transportation committee delivered to their Senate counterparts on July 23 a highway bill reauthorization funding counterproposal of $299 billion ($284 billion guaranteed) over six years, marking the first time House members have budged from their previous funding limit of $283 billion. Earlier the week of July 19, Senate conferees offered $289 billion in guaranteed funding and $301 billion in contract authority. In June, the Senate officially proposed $318 billion, $301 billion guaranteed.

Perhaps even more surprising is that Bush Administration officials have indicated that they would support the $299 billion figure, according to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA), who laid out the House funding proposal. This acceptance marks a significant change for the administration, which has never publicly endorsed funding higher than its own $256 billion level. Conference committee chairman Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that if the Senate were to vote on the counter offer now, it would fail. He instructed staffers to analyze the House offer over the six-week Congressional recess, which began July 24.

In advance of the recess, the House and Senate unanimously approved another short-term extension of transportation programs. The latest extension carries the federal-highway program through September 24 and other transportation programs through September 30.

Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Transportation-Treasury Subcommittee approved last week its FY2005 spending measure providing $34.64 billion for the federal-aid highway program. Subcommittee Chairman Ernest Istook's (R-OK) original plan sought about $1 billion more for highways, but he was forced to scale it down. The 2005 funding is $1.04 billion more than the current level and also provides $3.5 billion for airport construction grants, an increase of $122 million. Transit funding was slightly cut to $7.249 billion. The Senate has not completed drafting its spending bill.