Senate Passes Highway Bill

Senate defies Bush on highway bill

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Posted: 9:34 AM EDT (1334 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate moved toward approval of a giant highway bill that exceeds the spending ceiling set by the White House, challenging the administration over what would be President Bush's first veto.

Senate leaders on Monday introduced a plan that would boost spending for the six-year highway and mass transit bill by $11 billion over the $284 billion passed by the House in March. The White House, citing the need for fiscal restraint, has threatened a presidential veto of anything over the $284 billion figure.

Supporters of the Senate package, crafted by Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and the ranking Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, urged White House flexibility, saying it would increase the flow of money into the highway trust fund without adding to the federal deficit or raising the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax.

The measure includes provisions to prevent fuel tax evasion and to shift some revenues that now go into the general Treasury fund into the highway trust fund. The trust fund comes from the gasoline tax and is the main source of federal grants to the states for highway projects.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said that while he is one of the more conservative members of the Senate, he supports the extra money because of the dire situation of the nation's congested and unsafe roads.

"This is a matter of life and death that we get a bill," Inhofe said.

But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, in a statement anticipating the Senate move, said the extra money was generated by "accounting gimmicks" and reminded the Senate of the veto threat. He said that "offering American taxpayers an artificially inflated six-year highway, transit and safety authorization bill means promising to spend money that doesn't exist."

The previous six-year highway bill expired in September 2003 and has been continued through six temporary extensions while Congress and the White House battled over spending levels for a new bill.

Last year the White House proposed a $256 billion package, up from $218 billion for the years 1998 through 2003, and threatened to veto any bill that added to the federal deficit. The Senate last year approved a $318 billion bill and said that amount was still barely sufficient to keep pace with the needs of the nation's overcrowded and unsafe roadways.

The Texas Transportation Institute's 2005 Urban Mobility Report issued Monday found that in 2003 there were 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel for a total cost of more than $63 billion to the nation.

Senate leaders hope to finish work on their bill this week, setting the stage for negotiations with the House on a compromise measure that might be acceptable to the White House. The latest extension expires May 31.

Inhofe said the extra $11 billion, which includes about $8.8 billion for the highway program and $2.15 billion for transit, would help ease the discord resulting from some states paying more into the highway trust fund than they get back in federal grants.

He said the money would mean that states would immediately get a minimum guarantee of 91 cents back for every dollar sent to Washington, with the rate going up to 92 cents on the dollar by the end of the legislative period. Donee states that get more than they pay in would be assured of a growth in funds given the larger pool of money.

"Everybody would like more money," said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Missouri, chairman of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee. But "this is the best we have been able to produce."

Found the bolded part of the article very interesting. So if the roads were less congested we would have a lot more gas and prices might be lower which would help the economy. Maybe the Bush adminstration should look into this bill and try not to veto it.