U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., has been named to the conference committee designed to get a new transportation bill through Congress — he is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

In April, the House passed a $284 billion spending bill and the Senate passed its own version of a transportation bill, which totaled $318 billion. Meanwhile, President Bush has said he'd sign a transportation bill that comes in around $275 billion.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., named Coble to the conference committee to work with members of the Senate to work out a compromise bill.

The federal government handles transportation spending in six-year cycles. The last spending bill, for $200 billion, expired in 2003.