BOND SAYS LAWSUITS THREATEN MISSOURI'S FEDERAL ROAD FUNDS

Missouri can't make sound highway improvement plans while an environmental lawsuit threatens to cut off its federal transportation funding, U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond said Monday.

In a telephone interview, Bond said the state is threatened with the loss of some $600 million a year in federal highway funds if the Sierra Club and Missouri Coalition for the Environment win their federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.

"It is simply not possible to make long-term planning decisions for the state's highways when such a huge slice of our federal aid is threatened," Bond said.

Missouri's senior senator will introduce legislation today to amend the Clean Air Act to protect highway funding.

The two environmental groups filed their lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., to force the EPA to cut off federal highway funding for communities and states that fail to meet requirements in the Clean Air Act, Bond said. In Missouri, the issue centers on the St. Louis metropolitan area, which has failed to meet emission standards to reduce air pollution.

But Bond said it isn't just the $229 million a year in funding for St. Louis-area projects that would be affected by such sanctions.

"Even if they just cut off money for the St. Louis region, there would probably be a shifting of state funds away from other needs," he said. That could lead the state to put many rural highway projects on hold, Bond said.

A state legislative committee is looking at a possible tax-and-fee package to raise more money to meet the state's transportation needs. But Bond said that proposal and the state's five-year improvement plan don't take into account the possible loss of federal highway dollars.

"Until this issue is settled, any debate in Jefferson City about the future of our highways is premature," he said.

Bond said states shouldn't be forced to choose between clean air and safe highways. "I'm not going to let the people of the St. Louis region and the state of Missouri be held hostage by a group whose agenda is to make I-70 a bike path," he said.

He said the lawsuit is strictly punitive and "It doesn't do anything to improve the quality of air in St. Louis."

Even though Republicans control the Senate, Bond predicted it would be difficult to amend the Clean Air Act. "We could get filibustered in the Senate trying to get this passed," Bond said. "I am not sure we even have 51 votes yet."

Many lawmakers, he said, don't want to go against the Sierra Club.

Even if Bond's bill passes Congress, President Clinton could veto it.

J.T. Yarnell, chief engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation in Jefferson City, said the loss of federal funding would be a severe blow to the state's highway construction program. Some of the $600 million a year in federal funding goes to transportation projects other than highways.

But Yarnell said federal funding accounts for more than half of the some $800 million a year the state spends on highway construction.

The possible loss of federal highway money makes it even more important to consider a plan for additional state funding, Yarnell said.