In a rapidly shifting battle in Congress over highway funding and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, U.S. House Republican leaders said they now plan to pass a three-month transportation extension and promptly start a five-week recess. The new plan leaves the Senate few options but to pass the short-term extension or face a disruption in federally funded road and mass transit projects starting on Aug. 1. The new extension would not include renewal of the Ex-Im Bank’s expired charter. The Senate late on Monday voted to attach a revival of the government trade bank, idled since July 1, to a six-year transportation spending plan that identifies funding for about three years’ worth of projects. House Speaker John Boehner said he would not take up the Senate bill this week but said the House will pass the three month extension to allow time to craft its own longer bill by the end of October. “The House wants to produce a long-term highway bill,” Boehner told reporters. “We’ve got work to do and we need to buy some time in order to get that work done.” Boehner said he discussed the new extension plan with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell but the two made no specific agreements about it. In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said he would press ahead with the long-term Senate bill and made no mention of the House extension. If Boehner gets his way on the shorter extension, backers the Ex-Im Bank likely will have to wait until September for another opportunity to pass legislation renewing it, putting more export contracts at risk. In Ethiopia, President Barack Obama underscored the threat to exports by viewing a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that was sold to Ethiopia Airlines with Ex-Im support. “These purchases are not made without the Ex-Im Bank,” Obama said. Republican aides say the House-Senate highway dispute centers on a fundamental disagreement over the use of tax reform revenues to fund it. The House originally passed a five-month extension aimed at allowing Republicans to craft a year-end international tax reform package that would collect hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from the repatriation of foreign profits. Many Senate Republicans want to preserve this revenue to lower tax rates as part of a broader tax reform plan. (Reuters)