The Nation - News from Oct. 1, 1987

The House refused to consider a measure designed to pour $28.5 billion into the nation’s aviation system after becoming ensnarled in a dispute among several of its committees. The lawmakers declined to take up the bill by a 235-178 procedural vote in a dispute over a trust fund that helps supply money for airports and the air traffic control system. Members of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee have been trying to remove the airport and airway trust fund from the general budget, arguing that as the result of a slowdown in spending intended to shrink the federal deficit, the fund has developed a $5.6-billion surplus. But members of the Appropriations, Budget, Ways and Means and Government Operations committees have argued that computers and other equipment to be paid for by the trust are simply not ready.