WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - Congressional Republicans decided Wednesday to take a legislative wrecking ball to two Alaskan bridge projects that had demolished the party's reputation for fiscal austerity.
Straining to show new dedication to lower spending, House and Senate negotiators took the rare step of eliminating a requirement that $442 million be spent to build the two bridges, spans that became cemented in the national consciousness as "bridges to nowhere" because of the remote territory and small populations involved.
The change will not save the federal government any money. Instead, the $442 million will be turned over to the state with no strings attached, allowing lawmakers and the governor there to parcel it out for transportation projects as they see fit, including the bridges should they so choose.
Lawmakers said widespread news coverage had turned the bridges, near Ketchikan and Anchorage, into symbols of Congressional excess. Some members of Congress said they got more questions at town meetings about the bridges than about the new Medicare drug program. A Republican pollster warned that the projects were a political albatross.
"You can't defend it," said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, one of the conservatives who have been trying to kill not just the bridge project but also almost 6,000 other pet projects included in the $286 billion highway bill approved earlier this year.
Mr. Flake and others said outrage over the highway spending in general and the bridges in particular was also complicating Republican efforts to advance a broad package of $50 billion in spending cuts over five years, with lawmakers anxious about cuts to Medicaid and food stamps saying it was hard to back those proposals if the bridges got money. But House leaders said they intended to win final approval of that plan this week.
As they finished up the bill covering 2006 spending for transportation, Treasury and housing programs, negotiators agreed that the provision requiring the money for the bridges - known as an earmark - had to go.
"Frankly we just thought we could not approve the project in good faith," said Representative Joe Knollenberg, Republican of Michigan, who is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that controls transportation spending.
The bridges - a mile-long, 200-foot-high bridge connecting Ketchikan to a sparsely populated island and regional airport and a second one linking Anchorage to a port nearly two miles across an inlet - have been aggressively defended by Alaskan lawmakers, who said the projects would promote growth. They complained that their state had been maligned and were able to defeat a move in the Senate to direct the bridge money to hurricane relief.
Senator Ted Stevens, a powerful Republican from Alaska who had threatened to resign had the Senate shifted the money to the Gulf Coast, said Wednesday that he was resigned to the elimination of the requirement that the money go to the bridges.
"While I am not happy with it, I think that under the circumstance it was the best we could expect because of the publicity that came with the Sunday supplements and whatever," he said. "Everybody is talking about what to do about our bridges."
Budget watchdog groups celebrated the reversal. "Instead of forcing taxpayers to buy a pair of boneheaded bridges, money would be freed up for much more important Alaskan transportation priorities," said Jill Lancelot, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Representative Flake of Arizona, who wants a 10 percent across-the-board cut in the highway bill, said he and other lawmakers in the House and Senate would continue to press for all of the earmarks in the bill to be eliminated.
"We ought to do away with $24 billion worth, not just one bridge," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.
The action on the bridges came as the House and the Senate attended to a batch of spending, tax and budget measures before heading for a Thanksgiving break.
In the House, the Republican leadership expressed confidence that it could win approval of spending cuts this week. Passage of the cuts has eluded them for weeks because of resistance from moderates who are uneasy with the cuts and conservatives who have grumbled about concessions made to win moderate votes.
"We are just tying up the loose ends," said Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.
The leadership would not predict when it would bring the budget plan to the floor, though Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the acting majority leader, said the House would remain through the weekend if necessary to complete its work.
The House and the Senate also began advancing separate tax bills that were drawing criticism from Democrats for providing tax breaks for the more affluent while adding to the deficit at the same time spending cuts were being aimed at programs for the poor. Republicans dismissed that assertion and said inaction on taxes would allow rates that had been lowered in recent years to snap back.
"I think it is important to put these tax policies out there and do our best to make the truthful case that anything short of this would be a tax increase," said Mr. Blunt as the Senate began debating its $60 billion tax plan, which differs in significant respects from the proposal of nearly $57 billion emerging in the House.
Congress is also trying to dispose of its remaining spending bills, including the transportation measure from which the bridges were removed.
On Wednesday, the Senate sent the president a $58 billion measure covering the Commerce, Justice and State Departments as well as science programs. A stopgap measure covering federal spending is due to expire Friday but will probably be extended while Congress seeks to finish work on the bills.