A pair of long-term transportation bills are on pace for floor action in both the House and Senate, although a flurry of amendments and funding questions could slow their path to passage.

The full House is scheduled to take up H.R. 7, its five-year, $260 billion infrastructure and energy production package, as soon as Wednesday. But first the House Rules Committee will meet Valentine's Day to determine which amendments will be allowed a floor vote. Amendments to the nearly 1,000-page bill are being accepted through 11 a.m. today, according to the committee.

Legislators and observers expect a flood of proposals, especially since there were more than 100 amendments filed to the transportation language alone. The Rules Committee print combines that section with bills that would open up offshore drilling and energy production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, approve the Keystone XL pipeline, restructure pensions for federal employees and remove dedicated gas tax funding for mass transit.

"It's just such a target-rich environment. From the left or right there's a bone to pick everywhere you turn," said David Goldberg of Transportation for America, a group advocating for a long-term transportation bill. "It sounds like in an effort to let everybody have their concerns heard and let any amendments to get to votes, they're planning a pretty lengthy hearing."

Many parts of the package -- particularly the drilling bills -- are unpopular with Democrats. But some Republicans have also begun to line up against the bill, which could threaten its passage. Last week, six Republican legislators voiced opposition to the bill's reopening of ANWR to boost funding for the bill, an issue that is expected to be addressed in an amendment (E&E Daily, Feb. 10).

A number of urban Republicans have also raised questions about the bill's financing maneuver to pull the mass transit account out of the Highway Trust Fund and replace its dedicated gas tax funding with a $40 billion general fund transfer. According to Crain's Chicago Business, Illinois Reps. Robert Dold, Judy Biggert and Adam Kinzinger all oppose the bill in its current form because of the transit language, which has also seen opposition from groups as diverse as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) told E&E Daily he expects the funding issues to be the largest stumbling block on the floor but said he hoped things could get smoothed out. Many groups have asked the committee to re-examine that aspect of the bill, and it is expected to be an issue at tomorrow's meeting.

A number of conservative groups -- including Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America -- have blasted the bill for adding spending and not offsetting its revenue sufficiently. All that adds up to a tall order for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Mica as they try to shepherd the bill -- which they have pegged as a jobs package -- through the House in the coming weeks.

Senate action this week

The Senate, meanwhile, appears to have a smoother road ahead on its two-year, $109 billion bill. Buoyed by an 85-11 cloture vote last week on the bill -- S. 1813 -- the Senate is expected to move forward with debate this week. Although the measure has bipartisan support, funding questions still will dog the bill after the Finance Committee came up short on offsets for the $12 billion to $13 billion funding shortfall.

Although individual parts of the legislation were approved by various committees with bipartisan votes, a number of members on both sides cautioned that there are changes they would like to see made on the floor. Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has raised questions about the pay-fors passed by his panel and would like to see them adopt drilling measures like the ones in the House bill. Other legislators have said they might introduce amendments concerning individual taxes and offsets chosen by the committee.

Hatch also said he might reintroduce an amendment that would attach an approval of the Keystone pipeline to the bill.

However, after the cloture vote Thursday, Boxer warned legislators not to attach any extraneous measures to the bill, saying she did not want to see the reauthorization get bogged down in partisan dispute.

Other language in the bill, however, also will see some debate. Republicans on the Commerce Committee -- including ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) -- complained that Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) had inserted safety language to their mark of the bill at the last minute and vowed to strip or amend it. Some Republicans still want to remove funding for bike and pedestrian projects, despite Boxer's tweaks to the programs that remove the programs from their previous mandated set-aside.

The Senate bill does have the backing of the White House, which could help move it along. In a statement last week, the administration said it supported the bill, calling it "critical" and vowing to work with Congress to pass a multi-year bill. The White House has not officially commented on the House bill, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood blasted it in a statement, saying it "endangers all the accomplishments we've made over the last three years."

The White House support did not please bill co-author Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who said the president was "trying to take credit at the last minute for the good bipartisan work we have accomplished in the Senate." Still, observers think it is another good omen for the bill's passage.

"We expect the Senate to be done with things this week. That's the way it looks like the stars are aligning," Goldberg said. "The House is anybody's guess."

Schedule: The Rules Committee meeting is tomorrow at 5 p.m. in H-313.