WASHINGTON — President Bill Clinton signed a $58 billion transportation spending measure that would set a national drunken-driving standard by forcing states to set a limit no higher than 0.08 blood alcohol content.
"This 0.08 standard is the biggest step to toughen drunk driving laws and reduce alcohol-related crashes since a national minimum drinking age was established a generation ago," Clinton said at ceremony in the Rose Garden. "It has been an uphill battle," he said. The restaurant and liquor industries opposed the new standard.
Currently, 32 states have legal limits higher than 0.08 percent.
The overall transportation funding measure is $7.3 billion more than the fiscal 2000 level and $3.4 billion above Clinton's request. The spending boost on this and other legislation reflects the needs of congressional leaders in both parties, who are eager to please voters and who want to get it done in time to get home to campaign for re-election Nov. 7.
Clinton used the ceremony to renew his appeal to the Republican-led Congress to finish the four budget bills remaining for the year that started Oct. 1, including his education proposals.
The transportation bill includes an additional $215 million for the Internal Revenue Service above what Congress previously allotted. That would bring the agency's spending to $8.7 billion in fiscal 2001 — about $200 million shy of Clinton's request for a 9 percent increase.
The additional funding is designated to hire 633 auditors to pursue people with incomes greater than $100,000. Audit rates for this group have fallen by two-thirds in the last three years after Congress passed a law to overhaul IRS operations.
Clinton made the higher blood-alcohol standard a priority in his final year in office. He said his administration has released about $60 million to help communities combat drunk driving and increase seat-belt use. The new standard will save at least 500 lives a year, he said.
While drunken-driving laws are written by the states, the legislation would punish states that don't comply by withholding federal highway money. Under the new law, states that don't adopt the standard would lose 2 percent of their highway money if they don't comply by 2004. That percentage would rise to 8 percent if states haven't complied by 2007.
"Alcohol is still the single greatest factor in motor-vehicle-related deaths and injuries," Clinton said. "Lowering the limit will make responsible Americans take even greater care when they drink alcohol in any amounts when they drive."