I think I read that our Congress went home on break, what became of the TEA 21 reauthorization that I think was being called "SAFETEA"?

Superheater@rrmail.com

Highway reauthorization, including the STP "Enhancement" program that funds historic preservation and establishment of transportation museums, is firmly up in the air.

The entire highway and transit program, and the federal fuel tax, expires Sept. 30. A new bill by that date has become unlikely, although still theoretically possible. What's likely is a continuation of the existing program. The main uncertainty is for how long: a couple months while Congress devises a new 6-year bill, or for 2 years, punting the divisive issue of a gas-tax increase into the next Congress and the presumed second Bush term, when the President will no longer suffer politically if he signs the tax increase he pledged not to.

In any case, the safe bet is on continuance of the "Enhancement" program in its current form. This is true even though it was written out of the USDOT 2004 appropriation bill (not the highway bill) by a House subcommittee chair, who was just trying to make a point.

The bill will not be called "SAFETEA." SAFETEA is the Bush Administration's suggested highway bill. As is usual in these things, it was pretty much dead on arrival at the Congress, although elements of it supported by USDOT will make it into the final bill, such as increased handouts for traffic safety.

Reauthorization interacts with the ethanol subsidy in the "energy bill," transit funding, and to a very slight extent with Amtrak funding, All these things must be watched simultaneously.

The Fearless Frobom Forecast: a 2-year bill extending the current program at a slightly increased level, more pork-barrel highway projects, continuation of Enhancement handouts in a 2005 bill, increased Amtrak funding, and increased diversion of gas taxes to police overtime (so keep your radar detector lit up en route to the railroad museum). Confidence: 33 per cent.

A. H. Frobom