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July 8, 2004 2:00 AM, EDT

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epublican Senate and House leaders traded criticisms last week as lawmakers continued to struggle over a six-year spending bill to determine much of what happens to America’s roads, ports and transit systems.

House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) exchanged barbs in news releases after a meeting of the House-Senate conference committee that had been trying to shape a compromise bill between House and Senate versions.

DeLay issued a statement June 24 that said, “Instead of creating a fiscally responsible highway bill, the Senate is using it as a slush fund to rob other programs and raise taxes. It’s not going to happen.”

Within hours, Inhofe issued a statement saying: “Having just read the news release of my dear friend of 18 years, I have concluded that he has not read the Senate highway reauthorization bill. In his five-paragraph release, not one of the statements is true, not one.”

For the full story, see the July 12 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.