House Budget Conferee Appointments Bode Ill For Transportation Infrastructure

The fiscal conservatism of the five House members named to the Budget conference committee today is another downer for construction industry businesses. Democratic conferees including Budget Chairman John Spratt, Rosa DeLauro and blue dog Allen Boyd, and Republican conferees Paul Ryan and Jeb Hensarling, former chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, all seem unlikely to fully restore the $72.1 billion slashed by the Senate from the transportation infrastructure construction budget passed by the House. Appointment of Senate conferees is expected later today or early tomorrow, but since it was Senators who slashed the House's five year budget in the first place, the construction industry shouldn't hold out much hope in this regard.