The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $275 billion, six-year transportation spending bill Friday, though the White House had signaled earlier in the week that it might veto any measure costing that much. The Senate’s version of the legislation, approved February, is even bigger — $318 billion. President Bush wants Congress to stick with the $256 billion funding level he proposed last year, and says he may veto any bill that exceeds that amount.

Funding at the lower, White House level will create problems for state DOTs and transit agencies around the country in simply maintaining infrastructure and equipment. Areas like our metropolitan region, which needs to increase mass transit capacity significantly and find more resources for road and bridge repair, will see intensified competition between important priorities.

Much of the discussion over funding levels has missed the simple fact of inflation since 1998, when the federal government approved its last big transportation authorization. Here we provide an apples-to-apples look at the funding proposals in play: