Senate Boosts Transit Funds

The Senate moved Monday to add about $11 billion to a six-year highway and transit bill, setting the stage for a confrontation with the Bush administration and a threatened veto.

Senate leaders said the revised package, which would raise spending for the long-delayed legislation to about $295 billion, would be paid for by finding revenue for the federal highway trust fund. A vote on the bill could come by the end of the week.

But Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, in a statement put out in anticipation of the Senate move, said it would bankrupt the trust fund -- the money coming in from the federal gas tax -- by using accounting gimmicks.

“There is a dark cloud looming that will needlessly delay many important highway and transportation projects,” Mineta said.

The previous six-year highway bill expired in September 2003, and it has had to be continued through six temporary extensions because of conflict between Congress and the White House over spending. The latest exemption expires May 31.

Last year the White House proposed a $256-billion package, up from $218 billion from the 1998-2003 act, and threatened to veto any bill that added to the federal deficit. This year the administration has said that anything above $284 billion, the number approved by the House in March, would be subject to a presidential veto.