Topeka ? U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, said Thursday that President Bush ignored most Americans when he vetoed legislation that continued funding the war in Iraq but called for the withdrawal of American troops.

“He has absolutely disregarded the will of the vast majority of Americans,” Boyda said in a telephone news conference from Washington, D.C.

Boyda, who voted for the bill that was approved by the House and Senate, represents the 2nd Congressional District, which includes west Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan and southeast Kansas.

She said setting a timeline for troops to come home would have forced the Iraq government to make progress toward stability while reducing the strain on the American military.

Regardless of differing opinions about the war, U.S. military readiness is spread dangerously thin, Boyda said.

“We cannot continue to sustain this kind of war. I’m hoping and praying that there will be a good outcome in Iraq,” she said.

In his veto, Bush said demanding timelines for troop withdrawal would help the enemy. “All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather strength,” he said.

After failing to muster a two-thirds majority needed to override Bush’s veto, Democrats in Congress said they will negotiate a new bill with the Bush administration.

On another front, Boyda touted new legislation that would put the brakes on a Bush administration plan to allow trucks from Mexico to travel farther in the United States.

She said the administration was proceeding with a pilot project without getting public input. Her bill would put the project on hold until hearings are done on it, she said.

The trucks from Mexico, she argued, do not have the kind of safety equipment that U.S. trucks are required to have. This, she said, would make U.S. highways more dangerous and put the U.S. trucking industry at a competitive disadvantage.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has said the expansion of cross-border trucking operations would improve a system in which Mexican trucks have to unload their cargo near the border and transfer it to U.S. trucks.

Mexican officials have said they will allow U.S. truckers into their country starting July 15. The cross-border trucking system was called for in the 1994 NAFTA agreement but has been delayed.