"Senate Defies White House on Highway Bill"

[GreenPartyVoter]

The Senate moved toward approval of a giant highway bill that exceeds the spending ceiling set by the White House, challenging the administration over what would be President Bush's first veto.

Senate leaders on Monday introduced a plan that would boost spending for the six-year highway and mass transit bill by $11 billion over the $284 billion passed by the House in March. The White House, citing the need for fiscal restraint, has threatened a presidential veto of anything over the $284 billion figure.

Supporters of the Senate package, crafted by Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and the ranking Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, urged White House flexibility, saying it would increase the flow of money into the highway trust fund without adding to the federal deficit or raising the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax.

The measure includes provisions to prevent fuel tax evasion and to shift some revenues that now go into the general Treasury fund into the highway trust fund. The trust fund comes from the gasoline tax and is the main source of federal grants to the states for highway projects.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20050510/D8A069B80.html

[Nothing Without Hope]

1. The neocons want that money on killing Iraqis and Iranians and fattening

their corporate cronies. Detestable.