With Gov. Tim Pawlenty threatening a veto and legislative passage in doubt, House and Senate DFLers reworked a transportation policy bill Wednesday that includes a provision allowing law-enforcement officials to stop motorists for not wearing seat belts.

A House-Senate conference committee stripped a proposal that would require children younger than 8 to use booster seats after Pawlenty sent the panel a letter saying that its overall recommendations were "ill-considered."

The reworked bill is expected to go before the full House today.

Although Pawlenty also wanted changes to provisions that put new restrictions on teenage drivers, the panel said it had made enough changes to satisfy the governor and House Republicans.

One of the bill's provisions would make not wearing a seat belt a "primary" traffic offense, meaning police could stop motorists for that reason alone. Currently, a ticket can be issued for failure to buckle up only if someone has been pulled over for another violation, such as speeding.

"This bill will rise or fall on primary seat belts," said Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, a conference committee co-chairwoman.

Other provisions

The bill also would limit early morning driving by newly licensed drivers younger than 18 and restrict the number of young passengers they can have.

Another part of the bill would ban motorists from e-mailing and text messaging while driving.

Wednesday's developments came a day after Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung and Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, the other conference committee co-chair, clashed verbally over what Murphy said were conflicting late-night signals by the governor's office over what Pawlenty wanted.

Senate Minority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, complained Wednesday that Murphy had challenged McClung during a TV interview Tuesday to "meet him on the Capitol steps."

Senjem, who said that he didn't think the incident merited an ethics complaint, asked for Murphy to issue a public apology. Murphy, who seemed surprised by the request, said Wednesday night that he and McClung had resolved their differences.

Asked if he will apologize, Murphy said: "I don't know if it rises to that level. I don't think it does. I'll sleep on it."

In his letter Wednesday before the conference committee reconsidered the bill, Pawlenty said the transportation policy proposal amounted to "legislative overreach." But Murphy said the committee attempted to address nearly all of Pawlenty's concerns.

"We capitulated to his letter," said Murphy. But he added that the bill still had "primary seat belts in it -- it's a damn good bill."

One panel-added provision, which Murphy said was meant to gain Republican votes, wouldn't require a record to be kept if a motorist was convicted of driving as much as 10 miles per hour faster than a 55 mph or 60 mph speed limit.

In other developments Wednesday:

• Pawlenty said he would veto a bill that proposes to increase the state minimum wage to $6.75 for large employers and $5.75 for small employers by July and by another dollar next year.

House and Senate negotiators said they tried to address Pawlenty's concerns by settling on a lower wage than first proposed and dropping automatic increases tied to inflation. The current minimum wage is $6.15 for large employers and $5.25 for small ones.

But McClung said the bill goes too far. "This bill could do more harm than good -- the increased costs to small businesses have been shown to slow job growth -- and that's not something we need in this already challenged economy," he said.

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, accused Pawlenty of continually changing his position on the minimum wage, making compromise difficult.

"It's always a shifting target with the governor," he said. "You give in, compromise, and then it's not enough of a compromise."

Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, a Senate sponsor of the bill, said she was "almost speechless with disgust" at Pawlenty's veto threat. "All of these people who can't afford to buy a gallon of gas and a box of Cheerios with today's prices are going to be left hanging by the governor," she said.

Rukavina said that while he would consider further compromises to get a higher minimum wage into law, he drew the line at a tip credit Pawlenty wants. The credit would, in effect, allow employers to pay workers who typically get gratuities -- waiters, waitresses, bartenders and others -- a lower minimum wage.

• The House gave overwhelming support to building a 66-bed psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents in Woodbury. The approval would exempt the hospital from a statewide moratorium on new hospitals and came as advocates said those needing psychiatric care often had to travel far from the Twin Cities. The proposal awaits Senate action.

Staff writers Patricia Lopez and Kevin Duchschere and the Associated Press contributed to this story. Mike Kaszuba • 612-673-4388