Congress Passes Giant Transportation Bill
Clinton says legislation meets his 'core principles' and he will sign it
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 22) -- Both the Senate and House decisively passed a six-year, $204 billion transportation bill Friday that President Bill Clinton earlier praised as a "principled compromise" and pledged to sign into law.
In a landslide vote, the Senate voted 88-5 to approve the highway and mass transit spending measure. The House later followed suit, passing the bill in a 297-86 vote. Lawmakers set Friday as their deadline because they were set to recess for a week-long Memorial Day break.
The contentious legislation only reached the floor after weeks of negotiation yielded an agreement late Thursday over how to divide up the largest amount of money ever designated for transportation spending.
The final bill now goes the Clinton who said he would be pleased to sign it, calling the package a "historic bill to strengthen our transportation system and maintain our commitment to fiscal discipline and investing in our people."
Though billions of dollars was trimmed from the package, critics charge there is still too much "pork-barrel" spending in it and say the bill exceeds by more than $20 billion the limits set in last year's balanced budget agreement.
"The measure does spend more than we wanted," Clinton said, "but I am pleased that we have persuaded Congress to cut $17 billion of excess spending from this bill. Therefore, we have reached what I consider to be a principled compromise."
Clinton did say he was "deeply disappointed" the bill does not contain a nationwide drunken driving legal standard of 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content, as approved by the Senate and pushed by the White House. He urged Congress to pass the measure separately.
"We must have zero tolerance for irresponsible and reckless acts that endanger our children and loved ones traveling on our roads. We must make 0.08 the law in every state, and I will continue to work until that happens," the president said.
The bill does offer economic incentives for states to crack down on drunken driving.
Congressional aides worked well into the night Thursday on the final details of the legislation. There was urgency for congressional action before the Memorial Day recess because a further delay of federal money would seriously affect state construction plans for the summer.
States are desperate to get highway contracts flowing again as a temporary funding extension lapsed May 1, and the construction season is already under way.
"I'm extremely happy and extremely tired," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), the chief architect for the House.
"This compromise represents a good solid bill and it is centered on the concepts of innovation, safety and environmental protection," said the lead Senate negotiator, Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Chafee (R-R.I.) "We've overcome a very big challenge."
One of the biggest hurdles cleared was the distribution of approximately $168 billion in highway money and $36 billion in transit money. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and the Clinton Administration were successful in getting mass transit projects a larger percentage of the package.
Another challenge was finding ways to pay for the extra spending. Until last week the adminstration was threatening to veto the legislation if it cut away funding from social programs high on the White House's priority list.
Instead much of the extra money will be redistributed from a program to give veterans who took up smoking in the military disability compensation for tobacco-related diseases. Veterans groups met Thursday with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other Republican leaders to protest that decision, but it remained in the bill.
In the original bills, the Senate asked for $214 billion and the House $217 billion. During the previous six-year period, only $155 billion was spent on highways and mass transit.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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