Conferees Hike Road Funds, Add $1 Billion for Bridges
House and Senate appropriators have agreed on a fiscal 2008 transportation spending bill that boosts highway spending to record levels and added $1 billion for deficient bridges across the country plus $195 million to build a replacement for the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed in August. But the measure faces a White House veto threat.
The House-Senate conference agreement, announced in the evening of Nov. 8, sets the highway obligation ceiling at $40.2 billion, an increase of $1.25 billion, or 3%, over the 2007 level. Lawmakers also agreed to add $1 billion for bridges above that obligation limit, as proposed by Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.).