Statement of Administration Policy: S. 612 - National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 1990

(Senate)
(Sarbanes (D) Maryland and 4 others)

If S. 612 were presented to the President in its current form, the Secretary of Transportation and the Director of OMB would recommend a veto.

By the end of its current authorization, Washington Metrorail will have benefitted from $7.7 billion in Federal appropriations from general revenues for completion of the 89.5-mile system. S. 612 would authorize up to $2.16 billion in appropriations for an additional 13.5 miles for the Metrorail system. If additional Federal funding is to be provided for Metrorail, it should be provided as part of the national mass transit assistance program, competing with other mass transit projects. No other jurisdiction has a separate and discrete Federal fund for construction of a mass transit system, and no other system is financed from general taxpayer revenues.

The Administration further objects to the new authorization for reasons of equity:

— S. 612 would allow Washington area jurisdictions to pay for only 20 percent of the construction costs of the Metrorail system. Other communities with comparable systems are paying a substantially higher proportion of the costs of their projects — in most cases over 50 percent.

— The $2.16 billion S. 612 would authorize equates to an average Federal construction cost of $160 million per mile. It would make the extension the most expensive transit project in the country on a Federal cost-per- mile basis.

— Upon completion of the 89.5 miles of the Metrorail system in 1993, the Metrorail system will have received far more Federal construction assistance than any other new transit system — and more than all other new systems combined. Since 1968, Washington Metrorail has received 60 percent of the $12.9 billion Federal investment nationwide for construction of new systems.