December 9, 1970 OMB memo detailing a December 8 conversation between OMB staff and the House Republican members of the conference committee on the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1970 (H.R. 19504), who were trying to bridge the gap between the Democratically-controlled Congress and the Republican White House to avoid a veto of the bill. One of the items in dispute was the increase in the federal share of federal-aid highway projects, which the bill took from 50 percent to 70 percent but which the White House wanted to hold to two-thirds of project cost so the ratio would be the same as mass transit projects.