Max Baucus: “may I say, as chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee, that the answer is yes. In fact, currently there are a good…”

“may I say, as chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee, that the answer is yes. In fact, currently there are a good number of States--so-called ``donor'' States--which contribute more to the highway trust fund than they receive in terms of highway allocations. They receive actually less than 90 percent. There are some States down around the 80s. One, I think, is 76 percent. I am not sure about South Carolina. But the bill that passed the committee made sure that there is a floor of 90 percent--that donor States get at least 90 percent. Through the able efforts of the Senator from Virginia, and others--Virginia is often a donor State--that was then raised to 91 percent. This was one of the areas of concern that we on the committee had when we considered additional money under the Byrd-Gramm-Warner-Baucus amendment; that is, there are some States that felt they needed additional money because of high density, and others because they are donor States. There are some Western States that felt because they are public land States they should get some, too. And then the Appalachian Regional Commission felt that there was not enough money in the underlying bill. So the amendment would give a little more to Appalachia. But the long and short of it is that South Carolina, and all donor States, will, under the amendment now pending, combined with the underlying bill, receive at least 91 percent.”