By Richard E. Cohen, CQ Staff

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday that the House will consider the Senate’s $109 billion, two-year, bipartisan surface transportation bill or something close to it when lawmakers return from a week-long break next week.

He acknowledged that internal Republican divisions over a $260 billion, five-year House version (HR 7) are behind his move to make plans to bring the Senate measure (S 1813) or a similar bill to the House floor.

“My job is to find out where the center of gravity is,” Boehner said Thursday.

The Speaker left open the prospect of considering the five-year measure that the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved last month if a sufficient number of Republicans throw their support behind it. Such support does not exist right now, he said.

He added that party and committee leaders will continue to talk to rank-and-file Republicans about backing a measure closer to the House bill, which has attracted opposition from conservatives concerned about its cost.

Absent a shift in support, the Speaker said the House will “bring up the Senate bill or something like it.” The Ways and Means Committee could offer tax-related changes to the Senate plan, which the Senate is expected to pass as early as March 13.

Boehner’s comments to reporters appeared to catch some Republicans by surprise, even though his aides said they were consistent with what the has been saying to his caucus.

“It would be a problem if the Speaker abandons an open and transparent process in the House that lets us consider proposals,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. “I would be disappointed if this was taken out of [Mica’s] hands.”

Boehner’s comments signaled that Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have not rallied sufficient support for the House version that the Speaker took on as a signature issue.

“The whip count came back a little better,” Pennsylvania Republican Bill Shuster, a deputy whip and Transportation subcommittee chairman, said Thursday. “We still have work to do.”

Transportation Chairman John L. Mica, R-Fla., and his panel’s staff have met this week with leadership aides and transportation industry stakeholders in an unsuccessful attempt to rally support from lawmakers.

Facing the March 31 expiration of the most recent authorization of the transportation programs (PL 112-30), Boehner is clearly trying to avert the turmoil that would result if Congress does not pass a bill renewing transportation programs.

The Senate measure is, at the moment, the only viable alternative. It lacks support from many conservative Republicans but has the backing of some GOP lawmakers and most Democrats.