Editing Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 (section)

===Congressional action===
With federal highway aid to the state scheduled to run out on June 30, 1973,<ref name="Russellgains">Russell, Mary. "Transit View Gains in Road Bill." ''Washington Post.'' June 26, 1973.</ref> work on a new highway bill began almost immediately in the new Congress.

In the Senate, mass transit advocates won a major victory. On March 14, the Senate voted to give states the authority to use up to $850 million of Highway Trust Fund money in both 1973 and 1974 for the expansion or construction of mass transit.<ref>Braestrup, Peter. "Senate Votes Transit Use of Road Fund." ''Washington Post.'' March 15, 1973.</ref> The vote was a close 49-to-44.<ref name="BarringTransit">"Roads Bill Barring Transit Aid Gains." ''New York Times.'' April 6, 1973.</ref> The Senate bill also proposed spending $18 billion on highway and mass transit over three years, and included no money for highway safety or design improvement programs.<ref name="RussellApprove" />

There was weaker support for mass transit spending in the House, however. In 1972, Representative Colmer had used his role as chair of the Rules Committee to block any floor amendments aimed at adding mass transit spending to the 1972 highway bill.<ref name="RosenbaumSpur">{{cite news |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=David |title=Highway Funds Spur New Fight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/08/archives/highway-funds-spur-new-fight-close-vote-likely-senate-vote-cited.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 8, 1973 |page=B14}}</ref><ref name="BarringTransit" /> But Colmer was gone, and Representative Madden was much more willing to allow changes to the bill to be made on the House floor. Few expected transit spending authorization to come from the [[United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure|House Public Works Committee]], however. The committee was populated primarily by members of Congress from rural areas who wanted to expend money on highways and were not willing to devote funds to the construction of mass transit (which benefitted only cities). But there was much stronger support for mass transit spending in the House as a whole.<ref name="BarringTransit" /> Furthermore, the new Majority Leader, Tip O'Neill, was a strong supporter of mass transit,<ref name="RosenbaumSpur" /> and [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]] [[Carl Albert]] was willing to allow floor amendments on mass transit.<ref name="GettingFund">"Getting the Highway Fund on the Right Tracks." ''Washington Post.'' April 17, 1973.</ref>

To help reduce the chances that members of the full House would drastically amend the legislation, for the first time in years the Public Works Committee voted on major provisions of the highway bill in open public session.<ref name="BarringTransit" /> Representative [[Glenn M. Anderson]], Democrat from [[California]], offered an amendment in committee to allow cities to use their $700-million per year share of funding for urban highways on mass transit. His motion was defeated. However, Texas Democrat [[Jim Wright]] offered an amendment which was successful: Cities awarded urban highway funds could cancel these highways and return the money to the Highway Trust Fund. They could then apply to the [[United States Treasury]] for an equal amount in general federal revenues (if available). Wright's amendment also permitted states to cancel non-critical interstate highway projects as well, return the funds, and receive general federal revenues in return.<ref name="GettingFund" />

The Public Works Committee reported its bill on April 5, 1973. The committee bill added {{convert|10000|mi|km}} to the Interstate Highway System.<ref name="BarringTransit" /> For the first time in many years, the bill did not contain very much language earmarking funds for or requiring states to build specific construction projects. It did contain, however, provisions requiring the [[United States Department of Transportation|Department of Transportation]] (DOT) to establish a program on highway safety research and design improvement. The total cost of the bill was $25.9 billion over three years.<ref name="GettingFund" />

Anderson submitted his mass transit amendment when the Public Works bill came up on the floor of the full House of Representatives in late April 1973. The House defeated his amendment by just 25 votes.<ref name="Russellgains" />