Nevada delegates lobby for fed highway funds

Paul Kane

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 9:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Nevada congressional delegation heard an earful from the state Transportation Secretary Tom Stephens this week as part of the ongoing effort to secure more federal highway dollars for the fastest-growing state in the nation.

Stevens met Tuesday and Wednesday with Republican Reps. Jim Gibbons and John Ensign, and Democratic Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, all of whom are pushing congressional leadership to increase Nevada's share of the federal highway funding pie.

But that effort has run into a roadblock as the highway funding issue turned into one of the most contentious battles in Congress last year -- so tough that leaders agreed to pass a short-term bill and reconsider a six-year plan this year.

But Congress is working on a very tight schedule this year, with more time given for lawmakers to travel to their homes and campaign than to actually cast votes in the House and Senate.

The current short-term funding bill expires May 1. Stevens warned the lawmakers that without a long-term resolution, projects would be jeopardized including the bidding process for the Interstate 15 widening project.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill next week, and Gibbons and Ensign are pushing Speaker Newt Gingrich to take up a House version as soon as possible.

"Few states have the economic dependence on their highway infrastructure as does Nevada, and every effort must be made to see that federal transportation dollars are allocated in an equitable and timely fashion," the pair wrote to Gingrich.

"We know what we need to do out here, and that's get a bill out as soon as possible," Reid, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee drafting the bill, said Wednesday after meeting Stephens.

Under the current funding formula, which was written in 1991, Nevada receives about $121 million a year for the upkeep of roads and mass transit. Because there is much more funding in the new highway bill, Nevada is certain to get more money, as will most states.

But Stevens and the delegation are trying to ensure the state gets its fair share.

The original House proposal gives Nevada $139 million a year, just 0.57 percent of the national total spent on roads, and less than the 0.63 percent the state receives under the old bill. The Senate version is much better to Nevada, giving it $161 million a year, 0.73 percent of the pie.

Ensign said he and Gibbons are working with House members from large western states with small populations to schedule a meeting with the Republican leaders and House Transportation Committee chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa., all of whom are rewriting the highway bill approved by Shuster's committee last year.

That bill, a six-year plan at $218 billion, went well beyond spending caps in the balanced budget deal of 1997, so Gingrich opposed Shuster's bill. A Shuster spokesman said he had no idea when the final House version of the highway bill would be unveiled.

In the Senate, Reid is sponsoring an amendment that would increase highway funding and would push Nevada's share to more than $200 million a year.

Reid, who is also a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee that will set funding for roads, said there will be about 180 amendments offered to the highway bill, and that the Senate needs to get started as soon as possible -- particularly with a May 1 deadline looming.

"It could take weeks to get through," Reid added.

The big fear, for Stevens and the state, is that the House and Senate will again become bogged down in regional battles over the money and there will be some delays in funding for projects, including the Hoover Dam.