Bond gives federal highway bill another push

WASHINGTON -- A much-delayed federal highway and transit bill that would provide huge funding for Missouri's bridges, roads and public transportation is getting another push this year from Sen. Kit Bond.

Bond is an author of the $318 billion highway bill, which failed last year despite the senior senator's prodding, sometimes against the White House, which wanted a less expensive measure.

Congress' previous six-year bill allocating transportation money expired in 2003, prompting lawmakers to vote half a dozen times to extend the law. The current extension expires in May, a deadline that Bond, chairman of a transportation subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee, hopes will create a sense of urgency to pass a new bill.

"It's critically important to Missouri," Bond said. "It's critically important to me."

While disagreement over the bill's cost has repeatedly led to its stalling in Congress, Bond, a Republican, said he thinks things may be different this year.

Sen. Max Baucus, the new ranking Democrat on Bond's subcommittee, is also the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, which must approve how the bill is paid for.

"I think we're singing off the same songbook," Bond said of Baucus.

And the new Democratic leader in the Senate, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, was an ally of Bond on the subcommittee last year. Last week, Reid called for bipartisan cooperation to pass a bill early this year.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has also called for passage of funding by early this year.

Still, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta has said the Bush administration's proposal for transportation funding will likely be less than Congress wants.

"It is my hope that legislators will spend less time fretting over funding amounts and focus more on what our bill will accomplish," Mineta said last week in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Bond has some ideas in case the six-year bill encounters passage troubles. He said he could propose a four- or five-year bill instead, or suggest using bonds to pay for part of it.

Still, Bond said, there's no way to say what could happen.

"I didn't make any predictions last year and I'm not going to break that string," Bond said. "To make predictions, you've got to know what's going to happen."