The roster finally is set for a congressionally mandated commission charged with recommending ways to deal with the highway funding squeeze. Once the group begins to meet, it will have to hurry to produce its required report by a July 1, 2007, deadline. Delays in filling the panel�s slots already have put it months behind schedule. A more important issue is whether that report, whatever it says, will have an impact on lawmakers who draft the next big transportation bill, in 2009.
With a widespread feeling that new ways to fund road building should be explored, Congress set up a National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission in last year�s SAFETEA-LU legislation. As that measure required, Senate and House leaders picked eight panel members. President Bush completed the lineup April 6, filling three slots. SAFETEA-LU mandated that all members were supposed to be named four months ago.