The Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee in the U.S. Capitol met June 13 to discuss how APTA, represented by President & CEO Michael Melaniphy, and other industry groups can help advance the surface transportation authorization bill now being negotiated in a House/Senate conference committee.
In addition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Steering and Outreach Chairman Mark Begich (D-AK), Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Thomas R. Carper (D-DE), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark L. Pryor (D-AR), Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mark Udall (D-CO), John Kerry (D-MA), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) were in attendance.
Many coalition partners of Americans for Transportation Mobility had been invited as well, including Melaniphy on behalf of the association’s member organizations. Also at the meeting were Lee Gibson, executive director of the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, Reno, NV, and others representing businesses and organizations.
Senators candidly expressed frustration about their inability to advance a conference agreement with House conferees and charged those present with doing everything possible to reach out to members of the House and Senate and urge them in the strongest possible terms to conclude their negotiations and bring a bill back to both houses that can be sent to the president.
Boxer noted that her Republican counterpart on the Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), had worked closely with her in the development of the bill and continued to reach out to his House colleagues in the conference process.
While Congress will keep pushing for resolution of a bill by the June 30 expiration of the current extension, the senators felt that if they were unable to conclude the process by that date, they could still complete the conference in early July. |