Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409270126
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Hours after the charge was leveled by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County, Byrd agreed to pare back the $95 million he had won for his state to $40 million, citing Congress' need to quickly finish its work for the year.
``It shouldn't hang up over one man's petulance,'' Byrd said in an interview.
In mounting his latest attack against Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Wolf was taking on a man whom he and other foes long have accused of funneling a disproportionate amount of federal money to his small, economically depressed state.
Byrd, the 76-year-old senior Democrat in the Senate, has not exactly been embarrassed by his colleagues' accusations. In 1989, he became chairman of the appropriations committee, which controls one-third of the $1.5 trillion federal budget, and unabashedly promised to steer as much money as he could to West Virginia.
By 1990, he had overseen bills that poured $1 billion into the state.
Of the $352 million for so-called highway demonstration projects that House and Senate negotiators have put in the 1995 transportation appropriations bill, $95 million was to be for West Virginia - before Byrd agreed to the reduction. In each of the past five years, Byrd usually has steered at least 30 percent of the road-building money to his state, Wolf said.
``There is a pattern of greed and abuse of power here; and until it changes, the attitude toward this body with the American people will not improve,'' Wolf told reporters.
Byrd noted that the money was for construction of roads that Congress already had approved in earlier bills. He said other states were receiving billions of dollars for highways from other parts of the legislation, and said the West Virginia project was to help the state's economic development.
``I'm trying to get my people a fair shake,'' he said. ``The problem here is I'm being subjected to personal attacks, which is unfortunate.''
In the original version of the compromise bill, most of West Virginia's money, $90 million, would be for construction of Corridor H, a proposed east-west highway running across the state into Wolf's Northern Virginia district. Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., of the House Appropriations Committee said that amount would be reduced to $35 million, plus $5 million the bill already contained for another road in the state.
Depending on which route is selected, the road would be from 108 to 130 miles long. From 12 to 20 miles of it would be in Wolf's district, where Wolf and many residents oppose it.
House and Senate bargainers writing the compromise bill originally agreed that of the $352 million for highway demonstration projects, the Senate would control 52 percent of the money, and the House 48 percent. Of the Senate's $183 million, West Virginia got $95 million - or 52 percent of the Senate's total.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.