House Overrides Highway Veto With Big GOP Assist

The Democratic-controlled House, aided by 100 GOP defections, voted 350 to 73 today to override President Reagan’s veto of an $88-billion highway and mass-transit bill, sending the measure to the Senate for the final round of a bruising political struggle.

The margin was 68 votes more than the two-thirds needed to override the President’s action on the bill, which couples more than 100 road projects made to order for individual lawmakers with a provision permitting the states to raise the speed limit to 65 m.p.h. on rural interstate highways.

The only suspense in the House was the margin of Reagan’s defeat, with Democrats in firm control and GOP Leader Bob Michel of Illinois leading numerous defectors from Republican ranks.

Michel noted the presence of funds in the bill to complete a highway widening project in his district and said he was making a “very difficult, agonizing decision for the first time in the Reagan presidency” to oppose him on a major bill.

Democrats argued that the measure was under budget and said a successful veto would cost 800,000 jobs in the coming construction season. A provision permitting states to raise the speed limit to 65 m.p.h. on rural portions of interstate highways was also politically attractive to Western lawmakers.

The White House made little discernible effort to prevail in the House and concentrated efforts in the Senate in what has become a test of Reagan’s political standing after months of controversy over the Iran- contra scandal.

Vice President George Bush and White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., the former Senate majority leader, met privately with Senate Republicans over lunch.

Senate Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia said a vote was possible in his chamber later in the day, although he added he might delay it until Wednesday or Thursday.