The Senate has designated the 14 members who will represent the upper chamber on the transportation bill conference committee. The House will designate its own conferees soon, and the entire group will be tasked with reconciling the differences between the Senate's two-year bill and the 90-day "dirty" extension passed by the House last week.
Democrat conferees:
- Barbara Boxer (CA)
- Max Baucus (MT)
- Jay Rockefeller (WV)
- Tim Johnson (SD)
- Chuck Schumer (NY)
- Bill Nelson (FL)
- Bob Menendez (NJ)
- Dick Durbin (IL)
Republican conferees:
- James Inhofe (OK)
- David Vitter (LA)
- Richard Shelby (AL)
- Orrin Hatch (UT)
- Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
- John Hoeven (ND)
The list of Senators includes the top Democrats and Republicans from the Environment and Public Works, Commerce, Banking, and Finance committees, all of whom were responsible for large portions of the Senate's two-year transportation bill. Also included are the Democrats' majority whip, and the vocally pro-transit Menendez and Schumer.
Republican conferee John Hoeven was the author of a Keystone XL pipeline amendment that would have passed the Senate had it not been ruled non-germane, garnering a majority of votes but not the 60 needed to pass. The Keystone pipeline is included in the House bill.
Advocacy group AmericaBikes has provided links for each conferee indicating whether that member has been supportive of nonmotorized transportation initiatives in the past. Stay tuned for more info.
