President Vetoes Road Bill as ‘Budget-Buster’

President Reagan today vetoed an $88-billion highway bill and called it “a textbook example of special-interest, pork-barrel politics.”

The legislation would have allowed states to raise the speed limit to 65 m.p.h. on rural stretches of interstate highways.

Reagan, commenting in an Oval Office photo session held as he signed the veto message, said the legislation was a “budget-busting” measure and called on the Congress to send him a new, stripped-down version of the bill to be put forward by Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole.

“I’ll sign the bill within the hour,” Reagan said of the Administration plan.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, addressing the prospects for a congressional override of the veto, said Thursday: “It’s going to be pretty close; we’re clearly the underdog.”

Override ‘Tough’

On Capitol Hill today, however, leading Democrats said they do not see an override as a sure thing.

Senate Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia said it “would be tough because of the President’s public relations machine and his arm-twisting technique.”

“On the merits, we should be able to overcome it,” Byrd said. “I hope the members won’t chicken out and (will) do what is best for their state and their constituents.”

Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) said:

“On merits alone, the Senate would override the President’s veto of the highway bill by a wide margin. . . . Unfortunately, the merits are being submerged under a flood of tearful concerns about image--the President’s image and even Howard Baker’s.”

‘Heat on Congress’

Secretary Dole told reporters that the Administration’s alternative will be submitted by the end of the day. The bill will propose spending $16.1 billion for mass transit costs over five years and $66 billion in highway construction over the same period, she said.

Fitzwater said the Administration alternative will retain the 65-m.p.h. speed limit.

Dole predicted that pressures on lawmakers to keep highway workers on the job would force Congress to pass the leaner measure.

“There’s a lot of heat on Congress. . . . The stakes are very high,” Dole said. “I’m very optimistic that we’ll sustain the veto.”

Of the Administration plans for a slimmed-down bill, Cranston said, “I can assure them (Republicans) . . . there will be no quick fix. What the President wants is unacceptable to a strong bipartisan majority of the Senate.”

Indeed, the measure passed the Senate by a vote of 79 to 17 on March 20. It had earlier passed the House, 407 to 17.