Pete Stark: “H.R. 2400, the ``Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act (BESTEA)'' bill is a highly needed piece of…”

“H.R. 2400, the ``Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act (BESTEA)'' bill is a highly needed piece of legislation. Every member of Congress wants to be able to go back to his or her district over the Memorial recess and give their constituents new roads and improved public transportation. I would be as proud as the next member to go back to California's 13th District and give them millions of dollars for road repairs and improvements--if it was not a deceptive form of Congressional pork and budget busting. This legislation authorizes approximately $216 billion in federal highway and transit assistance over a six-year period. This bill is too large and too complex to agree to when the whole process went awry. When Congress agrees to ``Save Social Security First'' but votes to spend a bloated highway bill--filled with various pork barrel projects--then Congress is deceiving the American people. The proposed funding in the BESTEA bill will deny states block grant funds for social services. Three billion dollars has been taken from programs that would have otherwise gone to services for children without health insurance, the disabled and the impoverished. The BESTEA legislation unjustly denies $15.5 billion in benefits to veterans for disabilities relating to tobacco use in the military--a service-connected disability--to fund highway construction projects.”