BOND READY TO BATTLE CLINTON, LABOR, LAWYERS IN ELECTION RACE

U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond said Tuesday he is ready to battle President Clinton, organized labor and the trial lawyers to win re-election.

"Bring them on, I'm ready," Bond said during a visit to the Southeast Missourian.

Bond was in Cape Girardeau Tuesday for a fund-raiser. The Republican faces opposition from Democrat Jay Nixon, Missouri's attorney general.

Bond touted his successful effort in negotiating a legislative compromise that allows federal highway dollars to continue to flow to the states for the next six months while Congress works to finalize a new highway bill.

Bond had pushed to change the funding formula so that Missouri would receive back 92 cents for every dollar Missourians paid in federal gas taxes.

But Democrats filibustered the bill, effectively preventing passage of the measure.

The House wanted to extend the existing formula for another year. But Bond opposed that idea.

"I said that dog ain't going to hunt," he said.

The compromise continues the existing formula. Missouri currently receives 80 cents on the dollar.

Missouri will receive $200 million from the compromise measure, with part of it coming as an advance on the current federal fiscal year's allocation.

Bond said he hopes Congress will approve a new bill next session that includes more funding for Missouri. He said Congress could approve a new highway bill by March.

Bond pushed for passage of fast-track, trade negotiation legislation. Opposition from labor unions have put the measure on hold, he said.

Under fast-track authority, Congress could vote yes or no on trade agreements negotiated by the president, but couldn't modify them.

Bond said the agriculture industry favored the fast-track bill because its success is so closely tied to exports.

The veteran senator said foreign competition forces American companies to produce better-made products at a competitive price. "That is a benefit that nobody really appreciates," he said.

He said the Clinton administration's Department of Labor strongly supports the views of organized labor. "The Department of Labor is really the Department of Organized Labor," he said.

Bond said the proposed Interstate 66 project isn't in the federal highway plans today. Any effort to push that project would have to come from the Missouri Department of Transportation rather than Congress, he said.

Bond said the Republican Congress led the successful effort to pass a balanced budget measure.