Lawmakers begin drive for restoration of highway budget funding

WASHINGTON – Responding to pressures from back home, lawmakers in Congress have jumped into action to restore some funding to the federal highway budget just weeks after President Bush proposed cutting it 25 percent.

The administration proposal threatened to put a screeching halt to planned highway projects in several states, including Maine, which stood to lose an estimated $37.2 million.

When Bush unveiled his budget plan at the beginning of this month, he called for a cut of up $8.5 billion over last year’s highway spending of $33.3 billion. Hoping to restore at least $4.2 billion of that proposed reduction, legislation in the House already has garnered 225 co-sponsors – enough to guarantee a majority in the House.

The chief sponsor, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is eager to get the measure up for a full vote in the coming weeks before other spending pressures for the coming year begin backing up.

“Life is a lot easier if you can get into doing your funding totals early instead of later,” said Young’s spokesman, Steve Hansen. “It’s a very important factor in helping the economy go forward and a delay would mean just paying more money down the road for transportation projects.”

Maine had been expecting at least $147 million in federal highway money for the coming 2003 fiscal year – the same amount it received this year, according to Jane Lincoln, deputy commissioner for the Maine Department of Transportation. But the proposed cuts would have left Maine short by about $37.2 million for many projects that have been in the planning stages for years, Lincoln said.

It would mean less money not only for highways, but bridges and safety improvements as well, she said.

“It would certainly have a devastating impact on the state’s ability to fund and deliver projects already in the pipeline and which are expected by communities across the state,” Lincoln predicted Tuesday. “It would put us in a position of having to delay projects and make some cuts.”

The state’s employment picture also would become a bit grimmer and throw job security into neutral gear – if not reverse – for many road workers.

The Road Information Program, or TRIP, a Washington-based group that analyzes transportation funding, estimated that as many as 360,000 jobs would be lost nationwide – more than 1,500 jobs in Maine – because of the proposed highway budget cuts.

“Those losses would be to construction sites, suppliers and others in the economy who benefit from the spending,” said TRIP’s research director, Frank Moretti.

As written, the legislation making its way through the House addresses some of the states’ concerns by seeking to require highway spending, at a minimum, to match the levels authorized in TEA-21, the nation’s surface transportation law.

As a member of the House Transportation Committee, Democratic Rep. John Baldacci of Maine was among the first to throw support behind the bill.

He, too, is eager to see it get through Congress quickly.

“I am hopeful that Congress will act on it soon,” Baldacci said.