American Dream

Lawmakers Agree on Road Spending

Associated Press
Saturday, July 2, 2005; Page A06

Quotes:

House and Senate negotiators have agreed to a level of spending for highway and transit projects that is acceptable to the White House. The agreement clears a major hurdle in the two-year effort to develop a new federal transportation plan.

Negotiators "have been working on a compromise for a transportation bill that would make much-needed improvements to federal highways," House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said in a midnight speech on the House floor Thursday. "Tonight they came to an agreement . . . to move that bill forward."

Congress has been unable to come up with a new bill, in part because lawmakers have sought significant increases in spending for transportation projects, drawing a veto threat from the White House over the cost of the bill.

Money for highway and transit spending is derived from the Highway Trust Fund, which comes from the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal tax that drivers pay at the gasoline pump.

The latest extension goes through July 19, giving negotiators several weeks after they return from the Independence Day recess to work out details of the legislation, including the formula that determines how much states get in federal grants in relation to their contributions to the trust fund.