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Congress can probably send the transportation funding bill, which suspends proposed curbs in truckers’ hours, to President Bill Clinton about the middle of next week, said a spokesman for House majority leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). Clinton is expected to sign it.

Both the Senate and House approved it Friday by lopsided majorities. The bill funds federal transport programs for fiscal 2001 and delays for at least a year any change in current federal rules on how long truck drivers can be behind the wheel.

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	Conferees Agree to Halt Hours Proposal (Oct. 3) (on Truckline) Carriers Show Feds How Much Hours Proposal Would Cost (Oct. 2) Congress Recesses Without Hours Deal (Sept. 29)
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The transportation appropriations bill contains a recent deal among House-Senate conferees to prevent the Department of Transportation from implementing its controversial proposal to curb truckers' driving hours during the fiscal year that ends next Sept. 30. DOT would be able to keep working on its proposal, however, and some lawmakers have said it should come up with a new version.

The delay was greeted with strong approval from trucking industry officials and from the Teamsters union that represents many truck drivers. Both groups wanted more time to develop a reform of federal rules that would be different from what DOT offered.

Some safety advocates criticized the delay because it leaves the issue of driver fatigue yet to be addressed, but the industry also argued that the DOT curbs would have threatened overall highway safety by requiring lots more trucks on the roads to carry the same amount of freight.

DOT’s plan also threatened to hit trucking companies and independent drivers with higher operating costs and lower revenues per truck when the industry is already hurting from high fuel costs and weaker shipment activity.

Besides the hours issue, the bill includes a cap on federal outlays for the "Big Dig" road and tunnel project in central Boston, new money to jump-start an overhaul of the congested Wilson Bridge across Interstate 95 outside Washington, and a requirement that states adopt a tougher 0.08% blood-alcohol limit to penalize drunk driving or else forfeit federal highway funds.