DOT funding spigot turned back on

DOT funding spigot turned back on    Under heavy pressure from Republican colleagues, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky backed off his lone-wolf crusade to block a bill containing an emergency 30-day funding extension for surface transportation programs and unemployment benefits.
   The Senate, by a vote of 78-19, late Tuesday night passed the bill extending use of the Highway Trust Fund for highway construction and safety programs.
   The Department of Transportation collects about $32 billion per year in gas and diesel taxes for the trust fund.

Bunning

   On Friday, Bunning refused to go along with a procedural motion to skip formal debate on the temporary extension, saying the $10 billion in unemployment benefits should be paid for with savings elsewhere in the budget to prevent adding to the deficit. The House had previously passed the bill as a short-term fix while the two chambers work on an agreement for a longer-term extension and job-creation measures. The programs had expired on Sunday.
   Bunning's decision forced the DOT to furlough about 2,000 employees without pay on Monday, and temporarily shut down reimbursements to states for construction work on federally backed highways, as well as safety programs targeted at drunk driving and unsafe commercial vehicles.
   Employees are allowed back to work Wednesday.
   States and other transportation interests now want passage of a $15 billion Senate jobs bill that focuses on business tax breaks because it includes a provision extending authority to spend from the Highway Trust Fund until the end of the year.
   Bunning became the target of harsh Democratic criticism for leaving hundreds of thousands of people without benefits and putting construction jobs at risk as states began to stop projects. Republicans were angry with the Kentucky senator for allowing Democrats to cast them as playing obstructionist politics at the expense of the unemployed. Bunning was offered the opportunity to offer an amendment for a tax to cover the $10 billion price tag, but Democrats then defeated it on procedural grounds. The senator, who plans to retire at the end of the year, was offered the same deal last week and refused because he said he knew it would fail.
   Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid could have sped up the process by invoking cloture and getting a roll call vote to override the delaying tactic. That would have started a 30-hour clock that led to a vote on the bill over the weekend. ' Eric Kulisch