House Committee Passes $275 Billion Highway Bill

he House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday approved a six-year, $275 billion highway and mass transit spending bill.

The legislation sent to the full House was $100 billion under what committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and most on the panel said was needed to deal with the nation's transit systems, the Associated Press reported.

The committee also inserted into the bill a provision allowing Congress to take another look at the bill again in two years, when a stronger economy might warrant a boost in spending.

Despite agreeing to a smaller bill, the panel expressed its unhappiness with the White House spending limits by also passing legislation allowing for $375 billion in spending.

Last month, the Senate passed a $318 billion bill on a 76-21 vote.

The White House has proposed a highway budget of $256 billion through 2009 and threatened a presidential veto of any amount that exceeded that ceiling to any extent.

Young previously proposed paying for the larger bill by raising the federal gas tax, which has stayed at 18.4 cents per gallon over the past decade, by about 5 cents.