(Washington, D.C.)  The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today blasted House and Senate conferees for approving the $299 billion Transportation Equity Act, H.R. 3550, which exceeds both the $256 billion ceiling set by the White House and a $284 billion draft version passed by the House in April.  The bill funds thousands of projects in lawmakers’ home districts and states, and relies on adjustments in the tax code to increase revenue.

“Members of Congress have raided the Treasury without any regard for fiscal prudence,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “It is time for President Bush to walk the walk and protect taxpayers from the big spenders in Congress.  This bill cries out for a veto.”

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Treasury Secretary John Snow announced the administration’s veto threat a day after President Bush submitted his budget to Congress in February, and the White House reiterated the threat in April.  The conference version includes 2,881 parochial projects for home districts—double the number approved in the previous six-year highway bill, passed in 1997.  If the full House and Senate approve the compromise, the bill will go to President Bush for his signature or veto.

“After the energy bill debacle and passage of the costly Medicare bill, Congress should explain why these projects are needed and how the government will pay for them with a $477 billion budget deficit,” Schatz continued.  “Judging from all the infrastructure ‘needs’ ascertained by the conferees, one would think the country’s landscape were still road less wilderness and buffalo herds.”

The bill’s generous list of parochial projects includes: 

• $15 million to build a road to a gold mine in Alaska;

• $3 million to increase beach access to California’s Redondo and Manhattan Beaches;

• $250,000 for Appalachian traditions for the construction of outdoor facilities along the Music Heritage Trail in Josephine, Va.;

• $250,000 to construct a transportation museum at a Cleveland high school.

• $8,000,000 to replace the Edward N. Waldvogel viaduct in Ohio;

“Most taxpayers managed to survive without a transportation museum in their high school,” Schatz concluded.  “High school students today, unfortunately, will struggle their entire lives under the debt burden left to them by this Congress and its outlandish spending.  President Bush must fulfill his pledge to veto this wasteful spending.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.