Report: Senate, House Republicans torn on highway bill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is in favor of passing a six-year highway bill, The Hill reports, but House Republicans want the Senate to pass a five-month highway patch.

According to The Hill, which cites a Senate Republican leadership source, McConnell wants to pass a bill before Thursday, July 30 to give the House time to vote on it before the August recess. Still, it’s unknown whether or not the House would even give the Senate transportation bill a vote, as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) dismissed the Senate bill as not likely to get a House vote. McCarthy suggested merging Senate and House measures in a conference negotiation as an alternative.

The Hill reports that McConnell will likely offer the six-year bill as a substitute amendment on the Senate floor Friday, July 24. The goal then would be to get it to the House by Wednesday, July 29.

“This gives us the present reality of three years that we don’t have to deal with this,” McConnell says. “There’s a lot of good reasons that we need to get this behind us.”