Senate Considers Adding $11 Billion to Highway Bill

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enate leaders Monday introduced a plan to boost spending by $11 billion for the six-year federal highway bill over the $284 billion measure passed by the House in March, the Associated Press reported early Tuesday.

The House passed a $284 billion measure March 10, and President Bush has threatened a presidential veto of anything over that funding level. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Supporters of Senate’s action, which was crafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), 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, AP said.

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, AP reported. 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-Okla.), who chairs 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, AP reported.

But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, in a statement anticipating the Senate move, reminded the Senate of the president's veto threat. He said in a statement 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.