Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN -- State Rep. Joe Pickett is at odds with state transportation leaders and the federal highway department over his plan to neuter the Texas Department of Transportation, and the first-term committee chairman is digging in his heels.

"TxDOT should be a partner in this, and TxDOT hasn't been a partner," said Pickett, D-El Paso. "They've been more of a heavy-handed bully."

Transportation leaders in the House and Senate are preparing for a tense argument this week over how new roads in the state should be paid for.

The chambers have approved vastly different versions of a measure that would reauthorize the Texas Department of Transportation, which oversees a multibillion-dollar budget for building roads.

Pickett said he wasn't sure whether enough time remained in the 140-day legislative session, which ends June 1, for the two sides to overcome all their differences. If they don't, the bill could fail. A safety measure would allow the department to continue operating, but lawmakers would have to try again in a special session or in the next regular legislative session in 2011 to reach consensus on how the state should plan and pay for roads.

"In some regards, it sounds scary, but I almost wish we'd wait two years and get it done right," Pickett said.

The Texas Department of Transportation has come under criticism from lawmakers and the public in the past several years as it forged ahead with toll projects.

While both bills seek to change the department's management, the House version, written in large part by Pickett, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, would make more drastic changes in the way the department works.

During debate on the House floor, legislators tacked on about 170 measures to an already huge transportation bill. Among the changes House members made was one that would transform the department's governing body, the Texas Transportation Commission, from a five-member board appointed by the governor to a 15-member elected body.

"It was sending the message 'We don't like TxDOT,' and those kind of things are not going to stay" in the bill, Pickett said.

But Pickett is ready to battle over his idea to let 25 municipal planning organizations do much of the decision-making, planning and funding for roads. Pickett is chairman of the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The Texas Department of Transportation would have a smaller role in controlling how dollars are used and telling local transportation authorities what projects can move forward.

Pickett said that in recent years the department has required changes or delays in local transportation projects because work in other areas had cost overruns and because the department made a $1 billion bookkeeping error.

"My goal is that TxDOT honors the priorities of the local entities," he said.

Last week, though, officials at the Federal Highway Administration sent TxDOT a letter outlining concerns that Pickett's plan could conflict with federal law and jeopardize federal money for roads.

"Our conclusion is that if the proposed legislation passes in its current form, the state of Texas would be unable to meet the requirements" of federal law, wrote Janice Weingart Brown, Texas division administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.

Pickett objected to the letter, which he described as having been manufactured at TxDOT's behest in its desperation to maintain control of road-funding decisions.

He responded with a letter back to the administration rebutting its concerns and asking the agency to "reconsider" its "hastily developed" opinion of his measure.

Pickett said that federal law requires that local planning organizations be involved in transportation projects, and that his plan would not circumvent that process.

"TxDOT seems dedicated to preserving the status quo, and I regret that they have involved you in that mission on their behalf," Pickett wrote.

The Senate this week is expected to approve its version of the transportation bill that provides more transparency but largely leaves the department intact.

If that approval is given, House and Senate transportation leaders, including Pickett and state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, will come together to seek a compromise between their different bills.

Carona, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, said Pickett's approach would dismantle a department that has had problems recently but has served the state well for decades.

"Our job as legislators is to draft those changes that will put the agency back in good order again," Carona said.

Spreading out transportation planning decisions over 25 local entities could create a disjointed system, he said.

"To do that would be a very inefficient process, and it would leave us with a very inconsistent transportation system," he said.

Carona said he hoped the two sides would be able to work out a compromise in the remaining days of the legislative session.

"As long as both sides show willingness to negotiate in good faith, we can get this done," he said.