Senate Republicans will seek to replace nearly all the offsets proposed by Democrats for a shortfall in the transportation reauthorization bill with revenue from expanded energy production at a Finance Committee markup today, according to amendments released yesterday afternoon.

Ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) filed an amendment that would strip all of the committee's proposed offsets -- except for a transfer of revenue from a fund to manage leaking underground tanks -- and instead seek additional revenue from expanded drilling in Alaska and the outer continental shelf. The amendment would also add a rescission of funds from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program and would add a measure approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline (see related story).

That would bring the Senate's transportation pay-fors in line with ones proposed by the House, while also raising as much as $5.9 billion over 10 years.

The Finance Committee will meet this afternoon to consider a suite of offsets expected to raise $9.6 billion for the Senate's transportation reauthorization bill. Among the proposals from Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are a tax on cars that fail to meet fuel economy standards, the closing of a loophole for a paper production byproduct known as "black liquor" and a number of tariffs.

Democrats, meanwhile, will seek to use the bill to achieve a number of goals, including the extension of a higher public transit commuter tax benefit, which was slashed roughly in half on Jan. 1. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) will also pitch an amendment that would create a national infrastructure bank.

Kerry said last night that he wanted to use the amendment to "see where we are" on the infrastructure bank, adding that he wanted "to keep people thinking about it." The bank -- which he proposed in a bipartisan bill last spring -- would offer loans to large infrastructure projects in transportation and energy.

Another amendment from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would extend credits for alternative fuels.

Meanwhile, Republicans will offer a number of measures to strip some of the proposed offsets, including the black liquor provision. Another amendment from Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) would remove barriers to offshore energy production.

Enzi will also propose allowing the annual adjustment of motor fuel tax rates to keep them in line with inflation rates.

Separately, the Congressional Budget Office came out with a cost estimate for the Senate's two-year, $109 billion bill. The nonpartisan office found that the bill would increase the obligation limit of the transportation program by $12.2 billion in 2013.