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www.rockproducts.com ROCK products • May 2016 • 41 permitting. Eventually, CKRC sued the EPA, challenging the legality of the ban on new permits. The winds of change swept through Washington again after the 1994 Congressional election, which brought with it a new Republican majority that was expected to be decidedly more familiar with – and friendlier to – the business community. In early 1995, the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure wanted to put legislation to designate the National Highway System (NHS) on a fast track. By early 1996, $5.3 billion in NHS funds began being distributed by the Department of Transportation for repairs and improvements to 160,000 miles of the country's most heavily used roads and bridges. California, Texas, New York and Florida were the top fund-getters. The department also released $2 billion in new transporta- tion grants in 1996 to 22 states as part of its "Partnership for Transportation Investment." To help finance a nearly-$1 billion, 159-mile highway con- struction project, the Ohio Turnpike Commission approved in 1995 an 80 percent increase in toll rates over a 2 ½-year period. With increased highway and housing construction fueled by an improving economy, low mortgage rates, govern- ment construction fueled by an improving economy, low mortgage rates government construction, and disaster relief, the aggregate industry saw modest growth from 1993 to 1996. Representatives of the mining and construction industries sued the Clinton Administration in 1991 over a piece of its program to revamp wetlands regulation, which they said illegally broadened the scope of wetlands regulation, pulling in excavation activities not previously captured by the Clean Water Act. In July 1995, the House Appropriations Committee consid- ered a funding proposal that would abolish the U.S. Bureau of Mines because of FY1996 budgeting limits approved by the House and Senate. The House approved a bill that would have killed the Bureau, slashed the EPA's budget by one-third, and froze enforcement of key provisions of the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act and put on hold the EPA's combustion strategy. A ray of hope appeared when the Senate approved a bill that would have not only preserved the Bureau but also given it $128 million for 1996. However, in late 1995, despite protests of the mining indus- try and the Clinton administration, House and Senate nego- tiators abolished the Bureau of Mines, keeping some of its functions alive and scattered to other cabinet headings while eliminating others altogether. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) kept relatively quiet in the 1990s, despite talks of a possible merger with the Occupational Safety and Health Adminis- tration. MSHA did, however, in 1995, warn mine operators and its inspectors about potential failures of emergency-stop pull-cord systems along conveyors due to spillage around the switch, broken cords, excessive slack, failed electrical switches, control circuits incorrectly wired, and frozen pivot bearings. ConExpo organizers decided in 1993 to move from a six-year schedule to a three-year plan, thus conflicting with the Con/ Agg show in 1996. In early 1994, organizers announced that the ConExpo and Con/Agg shows would, for the first time, be combined in 1996. In 1995, organizers agreed in principal to continue their joint venture exhibition through 2008. Rock Products co-sponsored with the U.S. Bureau of Mines the first Construction Materials Recycling Seminar in Chica- go in 1993. By the end of that year, Rock Products began pub- lishing two new magazines focused on specific markets fre- quently covered in its pages: Rock Products Cement Edition and C&D; Debris Recycling. Despite a record demand for construction aggregates in the mid-1990s, real prices remained level or declined, putting the pinch on profit margins for producers. Many aggregate companies cut costs by: reducing labor and incorporating automation; increasing acquisitions and divestitures to take advantage of geographic strengths; expanding markets through rail, barge, and freighter shipments to distribution yards; and establishing specialized markets. END-OF-THE-CENTURY As the 20 th Century came to a close, the aggregates indus- try was on a roll. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) was signed into law by President Clinton in June 1998. The six-year bill increased federal highway spending 44 percent, and initiated an economic golden era for aggregates operations, as production began to top itself year after year. As the century came to an end, the National Stone Associ- ation also saw a dramatic change of leadership, as Robert Bartlett retired and was replaced by Jennifer Joy Wilson, who ushered in an era where the association took on a much stronger role in lobbying, and playing an active part in look- ing out for the industry's interests on Capitol Hill. In the December 1999 issue of Rock Products, Editor Bob Drake penned a feature called 2020 Vision, which updated readers on emerging and enabling technologies, and predict- ed how these technologies would benefit aggregates produc- ers in the future. Next Month: 2000-2009: Production soars ever higher.