US Transportation Secretary Urges Swift Passage Of Jobs Plan (Down Jones Newswires)
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called Thursday for “swift passage” of a jobs-creation package in Congress to bring down double-digit unemployment figures.
LaHood said he met in the morning with Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.), the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, to press for the package to include “ample” funds for highway construction and other transportation projects. He also pushed for the plan to give his agency more discretion in deciding which projects get federal aid, expanding a program that bypasses existing funding formulas. LaHood said the change would lead to more innovative transportation projects.
“We’re urging swift passage, with ample funds, for highways, transit, aviation and rail, including Amtrak,” LaHood said in a speech at a national mayors’ conference in Washington.
The House approved a $154 billion jobs package in December that includes $27.5 billion for highway construction and additional funds for other infrastructure projects. The Senate is currently drafting its own package.
LaHood wants the plan to expand a $1.5 billion program called Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or Tiger, in which state and local agencies apply for funding for a host of projects.
LaHood said the program allows the DOT to give aid to projects that otherwise wouldn’t get funds under existing formulas.
The DOT is expected to announce the first awards from the program in coming weeks.
LaHood rejected criticism, mostly from Republicans, that the $787 billion economic-recovery package enacted last year has been ineffective.
“The stories that have been written that it hasn’t created jobs is baloney,” LaHood said, adding that he has visited construction sites funded by the stimulus plan. “I see orange cones and orange barrels all over your communities.”
LaHood said that jobs generated this year by the stimulus plan are on track to exceed last year’s total. He didn’t cite figures.
White House economists said this month that the stimulus package was responsible for keeping between 1.5 million and 2 million jobs in the economy through the end of 2009. Numerous errors have been found in reports by recipients of the funds, and Republicans have criticized the administration’s statements as overstating the plan’s effectiveness.
-By Josh Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637; joshua.mitchell@ dowjones.com
