It seemed like a jolt of good news when congressional Republicans announced that two Alaska bridge projects had been eliminated for what seemed to represent a savings of $442 million for the federal treasury.

But as it turns out, there won't be any savings at all — and the two bridges in question could still be built with the money, rather than those funds being directed for something more worthy, like hurricane relief.

What Congress did regarding the $442 million was merely to rid itself of a political hot potato, dumping it into the laps of Alaska's politicians with no strings attached. That state's lawmakers and governor can either parcel out the money for other transportation projects as they see fit or direct it toward the two bridges for which the money originally was set aside.

Congressional Republicans feel that if the state opts to go ahead with the bridges, Washington can escape blame.

In fact, criticism still would be warranted, for the lawmakers' failure to muster the courage to put the money off-limits to projects that would benefit so few.

The bridges — a one-mile, 200-foot-high span 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 dubbed "bridges to nowhere" because of the remote territory and populations involved. Meanwhile, badly damaged transportation facilities in the South that benefit millions of people presumably will take longer to fix because of the unavailability of part or all of the $442 million.

Federal lawmakers said their decision on the bridges resulted in part from news coverage that had turned the two bridges into symbols of congressional excess. But anyone who read beyond the headlines soon learned that congressional excess continues to reign unchanged.

Unfortunately, that isn't much of a surprise to anyone who follows business in the Nation's Capital in even a cursory way. The public knows how rare it is for Congress to really hold the line on any wasteful spending.