Highway bill gets Bush’s OK

WASHINGTON – Two months after the White House threatened to veto a highway trust fund rescue plan, President Bush signed the legislation Monday.

The bill transfers $8 billion from the Treasury’s general fund to shore up the financially teetering highway trust fund, which supports road and bridge projects around the country. In July, the White House threatened a veto, saying taking money from the general fund was “both a gimmick and a dangerous precedent that shifts costs from users to taxpayers at large.”

Supporters of the transfer argued that the Treasury was merely returning $8 billion it took from the trust fund in 1998 for deficit reduction.