While no major progress has been made by the Congressional Highway Bill Conference Committee, President Bush has made personal phone calls to several Republican senators, urging them to hold fast on funding limits set out by the bill.

Bush has previously threatened to veto any bill that exceeds the $284 billion limit set in the House version of the bill. The Senate added $11 million to that total in its version of the bill.

The conference committee last met on June 9 but has yet to take any significant action since then.

Congress passed a 30-day extension of the bill on May 26, which gives the conferees until the end of June to hammer out a final version.

Rod Nofziger, government relations representative for OOIDA, said the bill will most likely be resolved before Congress ends in August, but it is still not too late for fuel surcharge legislation to make it into the final version.

The language – section 4139 of HR3 – says all motor carriers, brokers and freight forwarders running truckload freight must implement fuel surcharges and they must pass 100 percent of those surcharges through to the person who actually pays for the fuel.

The rule was included in the House’s version of the bill, but not in the Senate’s version.

A conference committee is working to resolve the differences between the two bills before the legislation can go to President Bush for final approval.

This is the latest of several extensions since the 1998 Highway Bill expired in September 2003. Each extension has continued the funding levels from the 1998 legislation.