Vote Reveals Senate Asleep At The Wheel

Congress is right to seek and destroy overreaching government programs. But the Senate needs to work on target selection.

On Tuesday senators voted to end federal authority over speed limits on interstate highways.

If the issue were merely states’ rights, the Senate vote would be defensible. But the issue is lives.

If the House and President Clinton go along, people - hundreds each year, according to some estimates - will die because of this decision.

The feds have no right meddling in the states’ affairs (such as how fast people can drive through them), say backers of the move.

Wrong. The federal government has been in the highway business since Jefferson’s administration when Congress appropriated funds for the Cumberland Road. Federal funds paid 90 percent of the cost of building today’s interstate system.

Most important, people from all over the nation drive on those highways. Today, as in Jefferson’s, they are intended to unite the nation.

A Pennsylvanian motoring through Montana has a right to expect the highway system his tax dollars helped build will be safely and consistently regulated, whether he’s in the Big Sky State or the Quaker State or somewhere in between.

True, the feds first cracked down on highway speeds to save fuel. Guess what? Slower speeds saved lives too.

In 1987, when oil worries had abated, Congress let states raise their interstate speed limits to 65 on rural interstates.

In the first year, fatalities on those highways rose three times faster in states that went to 65 than those that didn’t. They stayed up.

Skeptics say there’s no proof of cause and effect. Of course the tobacco industry says the same about the link between smoking and lung cancer deaths.

Mostly, advocates like Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., say states know better than federal authorities what’s best for them. They also say states won’t raise limits to dangerous speeds, if at all.

For the record, Montana had no posted daytime limit before federal intervention and even now mocks highway safety by assessing only a laughable $5 fine for violations.

Lives are at stake. Congress needs to curb its anti-government zeal.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline; Giving states control only logical solution

Pro-limits The issue is lives, not state’s rights.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = EDITORIAL, COLUMN - From both sides CREDIT = Doug Floyd/For the editorial board