House transportation conferees today sent the Senate a counterproposal on funding for bike paths, sidewalks and related infrastructure in what lawmakers saw as a positive development in talks on the transportation bill, despite House Speaker John Boehner's threat of delaying action until after the election if no deal is struck by the end of this month.

The counteroffer covering so-called transportation enhancements was one of three proposals House conferees are going to send their Senate counterparts, House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) told reporters today. Additional proposals would go to the Senate tomorrow and Monday, although Mica would not provide details on their contents.

Mica said he expects responses from the Senate next week. The conferees should know, he said, by the end of next week whether they will be able to agree on a final transportation bill.

Earlier today, Boehner (R-Ohio) threw down the gauntlet for conferees, saying that while he hopes differences between the chambers can be resolved, he won't accept another short-term extension when funding for federal transportation programs expires June 30. Instead, he suggested delaying further work until after the November election, which would mean tacking it to an already-packed lame-duck agenda.

"Because if we get up to June 30, I am not interested in some 30-day extension," Boehner said today. "Frankly, I think if we get to June 30, it'd be a six-month extension, and move this thing out of the political realm that it appears to be in at this moment."

Mica said Boehner's comments were meant to "put as much pressure on the conferees as possible" in an effort to spark a breakthrough in the negotiations. The two discussed what to do if conferees cannot agree by the deadline, he said, but they haven't agreed on how long an extension to move if it came to that.

Democrats were quick to pan the suggestion that the month could end without a long-term deal in place.

"House Republicans should not walk away from their responsibilities and kick the can down the road, without offering solutions," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement. "We should be focused on giving businesses certainty and reaching a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to move forward on a highway bill, especially after the Senate passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill in March."

Other controversial aspects of the bill, such as House-included riders mandating approval of the Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline and blocking U.S. EPA from regulating coal ash, have not been taken up yet, the lawmakers said.

Mica predicted Keystone XL's inclusion would not sink the negotiations.

"It's not a big obstacle," he said today. "Everybody knows it passed [with] 293 [votes] in the House and only lacked two votes in the Senate, and there's a lot of movement ... on the House side to encourage the Senate to accept it from the Democrats' side of the aisle, so that's encouraging, we have support there."

Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), a freshman member of the transportation conference, said the length of an extension should be based on how close lawmakers are to reaching a deal.

"It seems to me if we're close to a deal, then a shorter extension makes more sense than a longer one," he told reporters today. "However, if you're going to do six months, it seems to me you probably ought to do seven or eight" so that the bill's fate is decided by whoever wins in November rather than during a lame-duck session.

The transportation enhancements program has been a key sticking point in the negotiations amid objections from Republicans to prior requirements that 1 to 2 percent of funds be set aside for bike and pedestrian infrastructure, highway beautification, and similar programs.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) -- who are sharply divided on the issue -- worked out a compromise by folding the program into another air quality program and reducing the number of programs eligible for funding, but that has not satisfied House Republicans (E&E Daily, June 7).

The House counteroffer represents a shift in the earlier House position, conferee Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said, although he would not provide details on what it included.

"We've moved," he said of the House counteroffer, whereas the first offer from the upper chamber was "just warmed-over Senate language."