Transportation Bill

It is a proven fact that the average American doesn't care about the federal budget deficit. Sometimes on the "NBC Nightly News," for fun, Tom Brokaw will say, "Next: the federal budget deficit." Then they'll show a 15-minute videotape, without sound, of a dog eating peanut butter. They never get a single phone call, because the instant Tom says "budget deficit," the viewers grab their remote controls and switch to sleazy tabloid shows full of "news" about Roseanne Barr Arnold's husband's tattoos and the William Kennedy Smith sex-change operation.

WASHINGTON -- In his proposed 1993 budget submitted to Congress, President Bush has proposed spending $2.2 billion less on urban mass transit than the $5.2 billion authorized by Congress in the transportation bill approved last year.Department of Transportation officials said the difference stems from the administration's continuing opposition to the use of federal transit funds to subsidize the operating expenses of bus or rail systems in large metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000.

Concerned that the credit markets have been spooked by uncertainty over federal transportation funding, Maryland has postponed a $425 million bond sale intended to partially fund construction of the Intercounty Connector. The sale, which had been scheduled this week, was called off after the U.S. Department of Transportation said the federal highway trust fund has nearly run out of money and its payments of transportation aid to the states are in jeopardy. The decision to halt the sale was made before a breakthrough yesterday in an impasse between the White House and Congress on an $8 billion interim funding measure.

In a long-sought victory for Baltimore, the Maryland Senate approved a $1 billion financing plan Friday for an unprecedented systemwide drive to rebuild and renovate the city's crumbling school buildings. The measure passed easily on a bipartisan vote of 40-7. It now goes back to the House of Delegates for approval of a minor amendment and then will move to Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk. Takirra Winfield, a spokeswoman for O'Malley, said the governor will sign the bill. "He's always been a supporter of Baltimore City and Baltimore City public schools, and he is very pleased that a deal has been reached," she said.

Bill would provide funding for rail stop, roadwork near APG Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski recently announced that an agreement had been reached on a six-year transportation bill that will include $1.5 million in upgrades for the train station in Edgewood, adjacent to Aberdeen Proving Ground, and $8 million for the construction of an interchange from eastbound U.S. 40 to northbound Route 715. The projects will help to prepare Harford County...

WASHINGTON -- House leaders are readying a transportation bill that would cost nearly 50 percent more than President Bush has proposed and plan to pay for it with a 5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase.The House bill would dedicate a minimum of $6.7 billion a year to mass transit -- twice as much as Mr. Bush wants to spend -- as part of an effort to shift the federal highway program away from its current interstate orientation and towardcongested urban areas.The five-year, $153 billion proposal, to be introduced in about two weeks, was described yesterday by Representative Norman Mineta, D-Calif.

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved yesterday a $318 billion, six-year transportation bill that pits lawmakers eager to bring popular highway projects to their states in an election year against a president determined to restrain spending. The bill, which the White House regards as too costly, has emerged as a potential target for President Bush's first veto. But a majority of Bush's fellow Republicans joined 41 Democrats in supporting the measure, calling it the "biggest job creation bill" that will come before Congress this year.

As Maryland's governor, I was privileged to be part of some of the state's largest transportation projects including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Big projects like these receive a lot of press, but I know from my time in office that for many Marylanders it was the smaller neighborhood projects that made a big difference in their lives. Projects like Canal Place in Cumberland and the Harborwalk Promenade in Baltimore can provide neighborhood amenities, improve community safety and support local businesses.

Baltimore and other Maryland localities would receive millions of dollars in federal money for bicycle trails, scenic pull-offs and street beautification projects as part of a huge, bipartisan transportation bill expected to pass in the U.S. Senate as early as Tuesday. The provision to protect funding for trails and other "transportation enhancements," as the projects are known, was threatened in an earlier version of the $109 billion highway bill. Now the measure includes the funding and would give local leaders more control over how to use the money, which could bring speedier improvements to the Herring Run and Jones Falls trails in Baltimore.

— Rep. Andy Harris, whose district is home to last year's Kentucky Derby winner, has tucked a ban on cramped horse trailers into a massive transportation bill pending in Congress, pitting him against lawmakers in his own party, farming interests and Western rodeo cowboys. The Baltimore County Republican put aside a well-established disdain for new government regulations to support a ban on double-deck trailers, which animal-rights groups say are inhumane. He said that, in this case, the prohibition is acceptable because the government already regulates vehicles.