Washington, D.C. - Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Committee, issued the following statement today after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) named Senate conferees for the surface transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21).

In addition to Senators Boxer and Inhofe, the Senate conferees are: Max Baucus (D-MT), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), David Vitter (R-LA), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and John Hoeven (R-ND).

Senator Boxer said: "I am pleased that Senator Reid and Senator McConnell have once again shown the bipartisan approach that the Senate has demonstrated with our surface transportation bill, MAP-21. Now that Senate conferees have been named, the only thing stopping us from moving forward with the conference is the House of Representatives, and I urge Speaker Boehner to name House conferees immediately."

Senator Inhofe said: "I was pleased that the Senate conferees for our highway bill were announced today, and I look forward to working with my colleagues so that we can come to a bicameral, bipartisan agreement on this crucial bill, which will create or maintain numerous jobs and repair America's crumbling infrastructure. I am confident that working together we can get the bill to the President's desk to sign as soon as possible."

Senators Boxer and Inhofe worked together with their EPW Committee colleagues to develop a two-year surface transportation bill, MAP-21, which maintains funding at current levels. The bipartisan measure passed unanimously in the EPW Committee on November 9, 2011. On March 14, 2012, the Senate passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, 74-22. The current transportation authorization expires on June 30, 2012.

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