Congressmen say transport spending fuels jobs
On the eve of Thursday’s White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth, two congressmen made a pitch to President Obama that increased investment in highway and transit formula programs could create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., and Peter A. DeFazio D-Ore., chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, said in a letter that highway and transit projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have resulted in nearly 7,900 highway and transit projects across the nation and created 210,000 direct, on-project jobs and “hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs in the past nine months.”
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“To offset the continued rise in construction unemployment, the collapse of the private construction market, and State budget crises ' we must act now to provide additional investments for ready-to-go highway and transit projects,' the congressmen wrote to Obama. They cited figures from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, that there are 7,497 ready-to-go highway and bridge projects totaling $47.3 billion, and an American Public Transit Association survey showing ready-to-go transit projects worth more than $15 billion.
