Congress adjourned for 1997

Nation's Business, Jan, 1998 by Steve Bates

* Congress adjourned for 1997 without passing a successor to the six-year federal transportation-funding measure that expired Sept.30, but lawmakers freed nearly $10 billion to allow states to continue vital road- and bridge-construction projects through this March.

The stopgap bill was designed to put pressure on senators and representatives to approve a multiple-year transportation measure in early 1998. If the U.S. economy remains strong, some lawmakers will seek a significant increase in transportation spending for at least the next three years to jump-start projects backlogged in virtually all states. However, many legislators want to set spending within the guidelines of the 1997 balanced-budget agreement.