"Most Republicans ... say there’s just no time for consideration of the controversial amendments being pushed by the senators-turned-candidates." Those "senators-turned-candidates" should be kicked out of office!

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COMMENTS: 
*  Yet another example of how Ted 'does not play well with others' 
*  Have fun with your own creations, Dr. FrankenConnell.
*  Right on Sen. Mc. Connell - - - the people is suffering out here as our highways and bridges are crumbling and are killing our people.  Tell all candidates to get lost and get on with the work the people elected them to do.
*  No wonder primary voters like Donald Trump. He is not gumming up Congress to get attention. Rubio, Cruz, and Paul are actually taking destructive actions in their bid for headlines. Trump, apparently much smarter than they, is able get voters riveted on him 24/7 with mere words.
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McConnell doesn’t have the time for Cruz to play politics with highways
By Kelsey Snell, July 23, 2015

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t about to let the presidential ambitions of his Republican colleagues get in the way of passing a highway bill.

He doesn’t have the time.

Earlier this week, White House hopeful and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced eight amendments to the highway bill, including proposals to defund Planned Parenthood, repeal the Affordable Care Act and ban taxes on internet access.

His colleagues and fellow presidential candidates Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also introduced amendments designed to rev up their conservative base ahead of the upcoming GOP presidential debate next month. Rubio is taking aim at any attempt to revive the Export-Import Bank and Paul too wants to cut funding for Planned Parenthood.

But McConnell (R-Ky.) is working to negotiate a package of less-objectionable proposals that would open the door for votes on only a few amendments that are directly related to transportation funding. This would prevent the unrelated political pitches from getting a vote out of fear they could derail the majority leader’s plan to push through a multi-year extension of funding for highway and mass transit projects before the end of the month, when the current program expires.

Most Republicans, including Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), say there’s just no time for consideration of the controversial amendments being pushed by the senators-turned-candidates.

“Not if we want to get to the House,” he said. “I think it will be self-limiting.”

Allowing a vote on each controversial proposal would suck up a considerable amount of precious floor time and McConnell wants to pass his highway funding plan as soon as possible. He is working against the clock to force the House to accept the Senate bill before current funding expires at the end of the month and abandon the short-term extension it passed earlier in July.

McConnell worked closely with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, to reach a $47 billion deal to fund highway and transportation investments for three years. Negotiators continued to tweak the deal in recent days, removing controversial elements and increasing transit funding to court votes on both the left and the right.

Aides on both sides of the negotiations said they are aiming for strong bipartisan support in order to pressure the House to accept their plan. Allowing consideration of controversial amendments from presidential contenders now could put all of that in jeopardy.

That’s not to say there won’t be controversy.

McConnell plans to allow Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to offer an amendment to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, it’s charter expired last month, fulfilling a promise he made when she agreed earlier this year to not pick a fight over the credit agency’s future during consideration of trade legislation.

But conservatives, particularly in the House, want to kill the agency and Cruz told reporters on Wednesday that he views the financing provided by the bank as corporate welfare and that he plans to do everything in his power to slow down or block the highway bill if the Ex-Im language is attached.

“I will utilize every procedural tool I have,” Cruz said.

It is a strategy that Cruz has pursued in the past. He nearly derailed funding for the Homeland Security Department with an amendment to roll back President Obama’s executive order to delay deportation for some immigrants who are in the country illegally.

He eventually gave up that fight, but his plan for the highway bill will play out over the next several days.

Many Republicans, such as Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe, (R-Okla.), see any attempt to slow the highway bill as nothing more than politics and seem resigned to this as a fact of life in the Senate right now.

“All of them who are running for president want to use whatever they can to get attention.” Inhofe said. “That’s a reality.”
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