National Journal's CongressDailyPM
Issue date: Friday, August 5, 2005

TRANSPORTATION
Three Anti-CAFTA Republicans Have Road Projects Slashed
Three House Republicans who loudly opposed the Central America Free Trade Agreement saw their highway projects cut as much as 70 percent , based on figures in the recently passed surface transportation reauthorization conference report. GOP leaders said they held off a vote on the highway bill to squeeze out support for CAFTA, which passed by two votes last week despite 27 GOP defections. Two of the loudest defectors -- Reps. Virgil Goode of Virginia and Walter Jones of North Carolina -- had their "high-priority" highway projects cut by more than 70 percent from the House-passed bill. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., who also was an outspoken opponent of CAFTA, had his projects cut by more than half, all well above the average 20 percent average cut for rank-and-file House members. Goode said the House voted on CAFTA around midnight July 27 "and the next morning we looked through the transportation bill and saw that my projects had been cut 76 percent -- and that's all I know." Asked whether he thought there was a connection between his CAFTA vote and cuts to highway projects in his district, Goode said, "Well, who knows what Santa Claus does in the dark." Goode said he wanted to ask House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Young about his projects but, "I just never did get the opportunity to catch him." He added, "I don't know if he would know, but I was going to ask." A spokesman for Young did not return a call. Goode's district did receive two sizable projects in the conference report -- a $7 million extension of I-73 and a $6 million bridge in Danville -- though Goode said that was done
with the assistance of both Virginia Republican senators.

Jones was the only one of the three lawmakers who voted against the surface transportation reauthorization conference report, which passed 412-8. A spokeswoman for Jones did not comment. Jones, like Goode, appeared at several anti-CAFTA news conferences dominated by Democratic opponents. A Gutknecht spokesman said the lawmaker was "obviously disappointed that some of his projects were cut more than some others' projects were." But the spokesman added that there is only a speculative connection between his cut in projects and his CAFTA vote. "I guess we'll never know for sure," the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for House Majority Whip Blunt said, "There were 27 Republicans that voted against CAFTA and to choose three as an example of some sort of leadership retribution would be misleading." The spokeswoman said the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee made the decisions on House projects. "I can't speak to why these three members were cut more than anyone else," she said, while adding that some of the 27 Republicans were low key in their opposition, "and there's no question that that type of approach was appreciated." Blunt said last week that the highway bill had been effective as leverage for CAFTA. "It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that members come and say, 'Gee, how am I doing with my projects in the highway bill?' And we're probably not beyond saying, 'we'll check and see how you're doing,'" he said.
-- by Darren Goode