Senate OKs $3 Billion for State Transit

WASHINGTON —  The Senate on Monday approved a $50-billion transportation funding bill that would provide $3 billion for bus, rail and highway projects in California and bar federal regulators from enacting tougher fuel-economy standards for sport utility vehicles for another year.

The annual spending measure, expected to be signed into law by the president, would allocate $50 million to keep a 6.3-mile subway extension from Hollywood to North Hollywood on track toward its scheduled opening next spring, and $1 million for studying a light-rail line between Fullerton and Irvine.

It also would provide $2 million for the Orange County Transportation Authority to purchase low-polluting buses; and $3 million to assist the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in meeting a federal court order to relieve crowding on its bus system.

An additional $4.5 million would be provided to study construction of futuristic magnetic levitation train systems--one that would link the airports in the Los Angeles region and another that would run from Las Vegas to the California-Nevada border.

The biggest single California appropriation in the legislation is $65 million that would be used to extend the Bay Area Rapid Transit system to San Francisco airport. An additional $20 million would be provided for the San Diego Mission Valley East light-rail project.

The measure, which cleared the House last week, won approval on an 88-3 vote in the Senate, which earlier rejected a controversial provision to cut public transit funding to California and New York. A large chunk of the funds in the bill would go to states to be spent on highway and mass-transit projects of their choosing.

The bill includes $1.5 billion in higher-than-expected gas tax revenues for the year because of the robust economy and the popularity of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles.

The measure would continue a policy enacted after the Republicans took control of Congress that prohibits federal regulators from enacting stricter fuel-economy standards for SUVs and other vehicles.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and others pushed for stricter standards for SUVs, saying the rules would reduce air pollution, help curb global warming and cut dependence on foreign oil. A car, which must meet a standard of 27.5 miles per gallon, emits 38 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime, while an SUV, which must meet a standard of 20.7 miles per gallon, emits 70 tons of carbon dioxide, according to Feinstein aides.

The auto industry has objected to the tougher standards, arguing that they would increase the costs of vehicles.

“We have already denied every soccer mom in the nation her traditional station wagon,” House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said last week. “Now we’re going to take away her SUV.”

For the second year, the bill also would prohibit the U.S. Transportation Department from creating “peanut-free zones” or restricting distribution of peanuts aboard domestic airplanes without documenting “severe reactions by passengers to peanuts as a result of contact with very small airborne peanut particles.”

The provision was inserted at the urging of members of Congress representing peanut-producing states, led by Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), who chairs the transportation subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.

Despite the increased funding for California, some of the state’s House members voted against the measure at the urging of Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Shuster objected to a decision by House-Senate negotiators to fund the Federal Aviation Administration entirely out of airport revenues, eliminating any general fund contribution.

The bill includes $1 million for the Los Angeles MTA to fund a “welfare-to-work” transit program; and $1.75 million for Foothill Transit to buy buses.

The funding also would include $4 million for developing mass-transit projects for Los Angeles’ Eastside and Mid-City neighborhoods, where long-promised subway extensions were dropped because of the high cost; and $1 million for improvements on the Los Angeles-to-San Diego rail corridor.