February 7, 2002 Senator Clinton Introduces Bill to Restore Proposed Cuts in Federal Highway Funding New York Could Lose Approximately $350 Million - over 3,000 Jobs - Under President's Budget Washington, DC - Today, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) introduced legislation to address the reduction in highway spending proposed in President Bush's Fiscal Year 2003 budget. The bill would require that the spending level for the federal highway program would be at least equal to the level authorized in TEA-21, the current surface transportation law. "At a time when towns and cities in New York and across the country are urgently in need of investments to help stimulate their local economies and create jobs, cutting federal highway and road funding is giant leap in the wrong direction. The legislation I'm introducing today, with a bipartisan group of my colleagues, will reverse cuts in the budget that would cost New York jobs," Senator Clinton said. "This funding is not only essential to the safety and efficiency of our transportation system, but it is an important part of our national economic recovery effort." The President's proposed budget employs a formula used in the previous highway authorization bill (TEA-21), which mandates that spending matches receipts to the highway trust fund. The formula provides for a minimum, not maximum level of spending. The bill introduced in both the House and the Senate today will offset the reductions in highway spending proposed by the Administration in its Fiscal Year 2003 budget by ensuring that spending levels would at least be equal to those authorized under current law. Senator Clinton introduced the legislation with Senators Jim Jeffords (VT), Bob Smith (NH), Harry Reid (NV) and Jim Inhofe (OK).