Transportation industry lobbyists who met with Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday to discuss the surface transportation bill came away encouraged about its prospects, three people briefed on the meeting told POLITICO.
Those people, granted anonymity to discuss a private conversation, said participants emerged with a sense that the speaker has an overall positive outlook on the five-year, $580 billion bill and that its passage could help members politically in an election season. Still, they said, Johnson (R-La.) acknowledged some challenging provisions, though he believed those could be hashed out. He also wants to get the White House engaged — but at the right time.
The meeting was productive, the three people said, and participants left it with the sentiment that the surface bill, also known as the highway bill, is very much on the speaker’s radar and that he is working to find floor time for it.
The bill, the “BUILD America 250 Act,” H.R. 8870 (119), in May advanced out of the House Transportation Committee by a 62-2 vote, a strong bipartisan showing for legislation that has been led by Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), the ranking member. Congress has just a handful of major bipartisan accomplishments.
