House-Senate Panel OKs Metro Rail Start-Up Funds

In a tentative but politically significant victory for the Los Angeles Metro Rail project, House and Senate conferees have agreed to provide the federal money needed to begin the first phase of construction on the subway.

Struggling to reach agreement on a huge, stopgap funding bill to keep many federal agencies operating through the end of the fiscal year, a two-house conference committee late Wednesday broke a month-old stalemate on transportation spending and approved compromises that include earmarking $429 million in federal funds needed for the $1.25-billion first leg of the subway. The rest of the money would come from city, county and state sources.

The spending bill could go to President Reagan in the next several days, congressional sources said.

However, the Administration, warning that current spending proposals include too much for domestic programs and not enough for defense, has been threatening a veto, which would mean more Capitol Hill negotiations and possibly cuts in transportation and other areas.

Sen. Mark Andrews (R-N.D.), who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, said there is “no doubt” that the Los Angeles subway and other new transit projects, which are strongly opposed by the Administration, could be targets for reductions if the bill is vetoed.

Southern California Rapid Transit District officials remained cautious in their assessments of the developments.

“We’re going to have a wait-and-see attitude,” said Nikolas Patsaouras, president of the RTD, which would build the system. “The situation is so complex and so fluid in Washington right now.”

If the Metro Rail funding proposal survives, Patsaouras said the RTD will begin preparing for a ground-breaking that could take place within 60 days.

Specifically, the bill directs the Reagan Administration to release $129 million previously approved for Metro Rail but withheld by the Administration. In addition, it appropriates $101 million--more than the Senate’s proposed $84 million, but less than the House’s $117 million figure--in 1986 and the remainder in future years.

More importantly, the bill includes language directing the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to issue within 90 days a contract to provide the federal funds needed for the Union Station-to-Alvarado Street segment of the line.

The Administration has strongly opposed such directives. Ralph Stanley, UMTA administrator, has said there are questions about the legality of such an order. Even if the bill is approved, a key question will be whether the Administration considers the requirement to issue a contract as binding.

“There are going to be interpretations all over the place,” Andrews said.