(The Associated Press distributed the following article on February 4.)
WASHINGTON — Federal spending to modernize mass transit rail systems for big cities won approval Wednesday from the Senate Banking Committee as part of a $56.5 billion bill for public transit programs over the next six years.
The spending, some $20 billion over the current six-year program, is part of a $318 billion highway and infrastructure bill before the full Senate.
The transit money, approved without dissent, includes $9 billion for the 2004-2009 period to modernize railways in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Boston and New York with older systems. That compares with $6 billion for the transportation bill that expired last fall and was temporarily extended until the end of this month.
Committee aides said senators also decided to maintain the current matching ratio where the federal government provides 80 percent for transit construction starts. The administration, which proposed $46 billion for transit programs in its highway bill version, is seeking to change the ratio with state and local governments to 50-50.
The House Transportation Committee has suggested $69 billion in transit spending as part of a more expensive $375 billion program, but the committee has met opposition from the administration and House GOP leaders over its proposals to raise the federal gasoline tax.
The highway bill would bring billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to every state, but comes to a vote as Congress is trying to cope with record budget deficits and administration demands that lawmakers show greater fiscal restraint.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Treasury Secretary John Snow this week warned that they would recommend a presidential veto if the legislation raised taxes, used bonds to conceal the true cost to taxpayers or used other budgetary gimmicks to shift the spending burden from the Highway Trust Fund to the general Treasury fund.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, said in a letter to Bush that he was “extremely disappointed with the ‘take it or leave it’ approach taken by your advisors.” “We are fast becoming a nation mired in gridlock, Young wrote, and “solutions to these problems cannot be found by issuing edicts or veto threats.”
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said it was troubling that the administration “seems to be putting up roadblocks instead of paving the way for improved infrastructure and more jobs.”
Highway construction is paid for by the Highway Trust Fund, which comes from the 18.4 cents in federal taxes that drivers pay for a gallon of gas. The current highway bill is spending $218 billion and the administration has proposed $256 billion for the next six years.
The Senate Finance Committee on Monday approved several budgetary actions that members said would add $35 billion to the trust fund without raising the federal gas tax, Those include cracking down on fuel tax fraud and creating a tax credit for the trust fund to offset an ethanol subsidy.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he was satisfied that the Finance Committee steps abided by the principles set forth by Mineta and Snow.
But Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the Senate was engaged in “illusory” accounting mechanisms and that “if we allow this bill to go forward in its present form, we will be significantly aggravating the deficit.”
The Senate bill, answering complaints from senators that their states lose out under highway spending formulas, ensures that no state receive less than 95 cents of every dollar it sends to the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund.