Rep. Jim Oberstar, aka "Mr. Transportation," led the House attack Friday against Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican who has tied Congress up in knots with his one-man filibuster of federal road projects that expire Sunday.
"The Senate is so obscure," Oberstar said of the upper chamber, where a single member can hold up legislative action by withholding so-called unanimous consent. "One person gets their nose out of joint about something, and it brings the whole place to a halt."
Actually, Bunning's maneuver does a lot more than that. Without a planned 30-day extension, Oberstar said the feds will have to furlough thousands of transportation workers on Tuesday, temporarily shutting down a range of government highway and transit programs.
Oberstar said it reminds him of the GOP's 1995 federal government shutdown, "in microcosm."
Until the situation is resolved, states also will stop getting reimbursed for spending on highway and road projects.
The road and transit programs were due to expire last September but have been kept alive by a series of extensions while Congress considers comprehensive new transportation legislation.
The extension also would ensure payment of federal unemployment benefits.
The standoff with Bunning, who retires from the Senate this year, could easily drag well into next week. The Kentuckian's issue: He wants to pay for the extension with stimulus dollars rather than new spending.