Bush Tells Congress to Get Transportation Bill in Gear

WASHINGTON —  President Bush, accusing Congress of “101 excuses for inaction,” demanded again Friday a transportation bill that shifts to the states more of the burden of rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges.

Bush said also that the $123-billion, five-year transportation measure passed by the Senate this week “calls for excessive federal spending at the risk of other important federal programs.”

The Senate added $18 billion to the price tag. Bush said that that threatens programs to improve aviation safety and to modernize the aviation system, as well as spending on education, health care and the war on drugs.

But, in a Rose Garden speech to state highway officials, Bush reserved most of his fire for the House, which he said “hasn’t taken any official action at all” on the transportation bill.

“I say to the Congress, don’t stop, don’t pass ‘Go,’ don’t collect any more dollars, just pass our transportation bill,” Bush told members of the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “Stop the jawboning up there. We’ve got to stop stalling and get the job done.

“The Senate’s bill has some good features to it; increased flexibility (for the states to determine how to spend federal transportation money) was one that we put forward originally,” he said.

But the President complained that the Senate bill does not increase the share of state contributions for building or maintaining most highways.

Bush had proposed a 60-40 federal-state split. The Senate bill pegs the federal share at 80% of the cost for most roads and transit systems, with the states picking up the remaining 20%.