Published November 1995 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd An Unbalanced National Transportation Plan
One billion dollars for special mass transit projects, but not a drop for highway demonstration projects. That was the decree from the House Republican leadership on the fiscal 1996 Transportation Appropriations Bill, a decree that leaves West Virginia and other mostly rural states out in the cold. Earlier this year, I had included $9 million in the Senate version of the Transportation Bill for the 3.7- mile Merritt's Creek Connector on State Route 2 in Cabell County. By West Virginia construction standards -- where one mile of four-lane highway can cost as much as $15-$18 million -- that is a pittance. But it was also the largest chunk from a total of only $39.5 million included in the Senate version of Transportation Bill this year for highway demonstration projects nationwide. That $39.5 million figure, by the way, represents an 89-percent reduction from the more than $350 million in last year's bill for such highways. The House bill, however, in keeping with the House chairman's pledge to block any "earmarked" highway projects, contained not one thin dime for such roads. The House chairman reportedly called such earmarking "immoral," and House Republican committee members claimed that keeping the highway demonstration projects out of the bill was a move of fiscal responsibility. What they tried to brush under the rug, however, was the fact that the bill contains more than 11 billion for earmarked mass transit projects, including $333 million for 81 bus and bus-related projects and $666 million for 30 transit programs, such as commuter rail systems. in urban areas. When the House and Senate versions of the bill came to an impasse recently at the House/Senate conference committee, the House Republicans refused to budge from their position. and they blocked the entire $39.5 million from inclusion in the conference report. That is not only unfair; it is also unrealistic and unwise. Highways are the lifeblood of West Virginia. They are sorely needed in our state and in many other states, which, like West Virginia, have very little mass transit and lack major airports and other transportation modes. In these states, highways are fundamental to economic development. and lack of adequate highways can spell economic stagnation. Highway demonstration projects are one of the few ways in which members of the House and Senate can address their states' and districts' special highway needs -- needs that are often ignored by federal agency bureaucrats and which are not properly addressed by the mathematical formulas generally used to distribute federal highway funds. I have no qualms about earmarks for buses and transit projects. They answer a real need in high-population urban areas. But, clearly, by leaving highways out of the mix, the fiscal 1996 Transportation Appropriations Bill ignores a huge segment of America. That is no way to build a national transportation system. November 1, 1995