President Clinton again criticized the spending levels in Congress' ISTEA reauthorization bills this week. At an event promoting his education plans, Clinton criticized Republicans he said would rather build roads than schools. Both the administration and Republican budget hawks have criticized the ISTEA-2 funding levels for exceeding last year's balanced budget agreement.

However, at week's end, the federal government began revising its estimated budget surplus upward.

Although Congress is in recess at present, the staffs of the relevant committees are working to prepare for the Senate-House conference committee that will meet later this month. Some sources say it now looks like Congress will finish with ISTEA sometime around Memorial Day rather than by the expiration of the current transportation authorization at the end of April.