Senate OKs 65-M.P.H. Rural Speed : Dole Drops Bid to Cut Road Projects; Reagan Veto Likely

The Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved a measure permitting states to raise the speed limit to 65 m.p.h. on rural interstate highways, after Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) abandoned his threat to force a showdown over $1.8 billion in certain highway projects that President Reagan has criticized as “special interest projects.”

The controversial measure, approved on a 60-21 vote, will be combined with the $87-billion highway and mass transit financing bill passed by both houses earlier this week. The entire package will be sent to Reagan, perhaps as early as Monday.

The President, however, has denounced the highway spending bill as unfair and overpriced and has vowed to veto it--even though he favors raising the speed limit. Especially unfair, he said, are the $870 million in funds earmarked for the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway.

House Override Seen

Key members of the Democrat-controlled House have said they have the required two-thirds majority to override a veto. The outcome of a Senate vote is more difficult to predict, even though that chamber approved the highway bill Thursday on a 79-17 vote.

If the bill becomes law, states could raise the speed limit as high as 65 m.p.h. on interstate highways except in areas with populations exceeding 50,000.

The spending part of the five-year transportation package, which the President must sign or veto within 10 working days of receiving it, provides funds for completing the national interstate highway system, a project that began in 1954 and is the largest public works project ever.

Also authorized are funds for road repairs and $17.9 billion in funds for mass transit projects, including the $870 million to finish the inaugural nine miles of Metro Rail.

Regional Division

Relaxing the 55-m.p.h. speed limit is an issue that has deeply divided Congress along regional lines. The East-West split was apparent in the Senate vote Friday, as it was when the House approved the measure Wednesday, 217 to 206. Both senators from California, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican Pete Wilson, voted for the measure.

Senators and representatives from sprawling Western states argue that the federal government has no business dictating speeds on local highways, whereas opponents of raising the speed limit argue that higher speeds will mean more highway deaths.

“It has been clear for some time that the people of this country are ready for a 65-m.p.h. speed limit. Fifty-five is no better than a joke,” said Sen. Quentin N. Burdick (D-N.D.), who hailed the vote as “a victory for states’ rights.”

Sen. Steven D. Symms (R-Ida.), who sponsored the speed-limit measure, called the vote “an indication that Americans want the federal government to decrease its interventions in the states.” He also predicted “more effective law enforcement” once states begin adopting the 65-m.p.h. limit, a speed he said most motorists already drive.

But Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) countered that “the needless loss” of as many as 1,000 additional lives a year as a result of the higher speed limit “is a price this senator is not willing to pay.”

The National Academy of Sciences estimates that an additional 200 to 1,000 motorists a year would lose their lives if motorists are allowed to drive faster legally, and it credits the 55-m.p.h. limit with saving 26,000 lives since it became the national speed limit in 1974.

In California, where Gov. George Deukmejian has said he favors faster speeds on rural roads, the highway death rate is nearly triple the national average.

Threat to Strip Projects

The speed limit measure had run into unexpected trouble in the Senate on Thursday, when Dole threatened to use the “65 bill,” as it is dubbed, as a vehicle to strip the 150 so-called “demonstration projects” from the highway bill.

Dole’s plan was to attach the Senate’s original highway spending bill--which contained no money for demonstration projects--to the “65 bill” and send it back to the House for consideration. Had the House passed this amended version, Dole would have crafted a bill Reagan could support.

The highway measure was split in two because congressional negotiators were deeply divided over the wisdom of letting states set higher speed limits on some roads. Rather than continue delaying the release of highway funds to the states, the lawmakers decided to let the full House vote separately on the speed limit issue.

Not Enough Time

Dole said Friday that he abandoned his fight on Reagan’s behalf because the Administration could not work up the amendment in time. Nor did he want his move to be misinterpreted as a vote against the speed limit measure, which he said he supports.

Senate Democrats and Republicans also said Friday that Dole simply realized overnight that he did not have the votes necessary to get an amendment through the Senate.

Dole now says that, if the President vetoes the bill, he expects a new round of negotiations between the White House and members of Congress, who are being pressured by their states to pass a bill quickly so that highway funds can be released before the construction season passes.