Paul Ryan’s first test as speaker; House sets to work on highway bill

House lawmakers have filed 270 amendments to a multiyear highway bill that presents the first key test for newly elected Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

The Rules Committee will meet late Monday and again on Tuesday to consider which of the proposed changes should make it to the floor when the chamber takes up the $325 billion transportation package later this week.

Lawmakers filed 182 amendments to transportation provisions, including a Democrat-led bid to gradually raise the federal gas tax from 18.3 cents-per-gallon to 33.3 cents by 2018.

The other 88 amendments are related to non-transportation provisions, including one by Rep. Scott Garrett, New Jersey Republican, that would make it easier for a company to sue the federal Export-Import Bank if it can demonstrate that it was harmed by the bank’s decision to finance a competitor’s sales overseas.

Mr. Ryan and leading conservatives want to kill off the Export-Import Bank, which lapsed June 30, but some Republicans and nearly all Democrats want to revive it as part of the highway debate.

Passing the first long-term roads bill in a decade is a top priority for Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, who mulled ways to fund the roads package as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee before his promotion to speaker last week.

There have been more than 30 short-term extensions since the last long-term highway bill, which was passed in 2005 and expired in 2009.

The latest short-term patch to keep projects moving expires Nov. 20, so the House is scrambling to finish a six-year bill before Congress leaves town late Thursday for a 10-day break.

This week’s debate will set the tone for how bills are debated under Mr. Ryan, who last week pledged to give rank-and-file lawmakers a larger role in how legislation is crafted.

“If you know the issue, you should write the bill,” he told lawmakers Thursday, following his election. “Open up the process. Let people participate.”

The Senate laid down its own marker for a long-term bill in July, clearing a measure that would fund three years of new road-building by eking $45 billion out of fees and tax-policy changes.

That’s set up a conference between the chambers to hammer out differences between the bills and negotiate funding for the last three years of the bill’s duration, once the House finishes its work.

All sides agree on the need for federal highway funding, and generally agree that more money will be needed than what’s brought in by the current gas tax, which has been producing diminishing returns.

Democratic leaders say they’d prefer a gas-tax increase, but GOP leaders have rejected that, leaving lawmakers to try to figure out where to get the additional money.