Next week, the Senate will consider a bill that would waste taxpayer dollars on costly and unneeded road projects.

Passage of the bill would waste millions of dollars on unneeded road projects in the FY2000 Transportation Appropriations Bill that would fail to solve traffic problems, would damage the environment and would increase sprawl.

The wasteful road projects in the bill were automatically authorized with the passage of the Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21.) TEA 21 authorizes a large number of these wasteful projects to receive 18 percent of its total appropriation for fiscal year 2000.

Almost 70 percent of funding levels in this bill were predetermined by TEA 21, thus leaving the Senate Appropriations Committee without any options for reducing wasteful spending in the bill. This lack of Congressional oversight sets the stage for wasteful pork projects.

Examples of Pork Projects in S. 1143, the FY 2000 Transportation Spending Bill

Continental One: Authorized through TEA 21, the FY2000 Transportation Appropriations bill provides approximately $19.8 million in funding for this controversial trade corridor. Continental One is comprised of a series of projects that would eventually form a trade corridor from Toronto, Canada to Miami, FL.

Appalachian Development Highway System: The passage of TEA 21 authorized funding for this program that seeks to bring economic benefits to the Appalachian region via highway development. The problem? People that run the program have claimed on the record that what the region needs is jobs, not roads. S. 1143 funds this program at $450 million as directed by TEA 21.

Olympic Roads: The bill directs the Department of Transportation to expedite the completion of seven road construction projects in Utah related to the 2002 Winter Olympics.