Surface Transportation Bill headed to Conference

On April 24, the Senate sent the surface transportation bill to a joint Senate-House conference committee. H.R.4348, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, Part II, as amended with the text of S.1813, the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” or MAP-21, is the vehicle for the conference. The committee is charged with reconciling the two versions of the bill, which contain significant differences.

H.R. 4348 was approved by the House on April 18. The bill would provide for a second short-term extension of various highway-related excise tax provisions, including excise taxes on fuel used by certain buses, certain alcohol fuels, gasoline (other than aviation gasoline) and diesel fuel or kerosene, certain heavy trucks and trailers, and tires. Also included in the bill is a controversial provision permitting the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. The Administration has threatened to veto the final bill if it contains the Keystone provision.

S.1813 was approved by the Senate back on March 14. The Senate's version authorizes various highway and transportation funding for two years and also provides a number of important tax changes, including pension funding relief, a higher exclusion amount for employer-provided transit and vanpooling benefits, and revised rules for certain corporate reorganizations.