Highway Bill Speeds Through House
The House on Friday gave emphatic support to a $275 billion highway and transit bill, voting for the prospects of new roads and jobs despite an administration warning that the bill was too expensive and would result in a presidential veto.
The 357-65 vote sends the long-delayed six-year spending bill to a House-Senate conference and an election-year showdown with the White House over federal spending, jobs and the deficit.
"We've done everything we could possibly do," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, who backed the $275 billion package but contended that it fell $100 billion short of what the nation's crumbling infrastructure needed.
The legislation, a target of fiscal hawks because it directs some $11 billion to members for special projects in their districts, would provide $217.4 billion for highways, $51.5 billion for mass transit and about $6 billion for safety and research programs in the 2004-2009 period.
The White House, citing the need for fiscal restraint because of mounting federal budget deficits, has opposed both the House bill and the more costly $318 billion Senate bill and cautioned that the legislation could produce the first veto of President Bush's presidency. The administration has recommended $256 billion in spending, up from $218 billion for the 1998-2003 highway program.
Republicans joined in defeating, 225-198, a Democratic motion to increase spending to $318 billion, because they said it would require tax increases to pay for it.
As lawmakers approached a final vote, the debate centered not on administration charges that the bill was too expensive but on how to assure that every state gets its fair share of the massive six-year public works spending.
The Republican-led House rejected an amendment that would have expanded those projects included in determining each state's minimum guarantee of what it gets back from the federal government for money its drivers contribute, through the federal gas tax, to the highway trust fund.
Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., said his state and others such as California and Georgia "are taking a whuppin' under this bill and it's not fair," but opponents of the amendment warned other states could suffer if it passed.
Current law guarantees that every state get back at least 90.5 cents for every dollar going into the trust fund, the revenue source for federal grants to the states. Unlike the House, a Senate bill passed earlier would raise that guarantee to 95 cents by 2009.
"Failure to address our transportation needs will leave our country behind," said Young, who has confronted the administration veto threat by saying the House bill, rather than being too costly, doesn't go far enough in meeting the nation's infrastructure needs.
"This is the biggest jobs bill that we will vote on in this Congress," said Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., a Transportation Committee member.
The legislation also allows members to gain special projects they say reflect local needs but are regarded as "pork" by fiscal watchdogs. Critics mentioned $4 million for graffiti elimination in New York; $2 million for a high-speed catamaran ferry in Massachusetts; $1.5 million for the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.; and $590,000 for sidewalk revitalization in Eastman, Ga.
Alaska, Young's state, is one of the winners in getting a portion of the $11 billion in high-priority projects.
Young and his allies have pushed for $375 billion, saying that is the amount the Transportation Department says is needed just to maintain the nation's existing surface transportation.
"Why some bean counters think that we can do this bill on the cheap when the infrastructure needs of our country are crying out for repairs is beyond me," said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, a committee member.