In a speech today at the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., President Obama stood next to Vice President Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and spoke about the early successes of infrastructure appropriations in stimulating the economy towards recovery. Highlighting award of the 2,000th infrastructure project awarded with the $48.1 billion in funding provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the president noted that "[T]hese projects are getting approved more quickly than we thought ... and because these projects are costing less than we thought, we can utter a sentence rarely heard in recent years: This government effort is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget."
Transportation Department officials say that competition for stimulus projects is driving down costs by 15% to 20% of total cost estimates on major infrastructure projects. So, if this sort of spending is buying taxpayers more bang for the buck, at the same time it is creating and saving jobs and stimulating the economy, why does the U. S. Senate want to cut the House proposed five year budget for infrastructure improvements by one and a half times the amount of money which was appropriated in the stimulus bill?
In the budget resolutions now pending in conference committee, the Senate version lags way behind the House version in every year 2010 through 2014 with respect to the spending Senators expect to authorize for road, bridge, railway, transit and waterway construction projects. The Senate version of the resolution cuts down the infrastructure spending authority provided in the House bill by $12.9 billion for 2010, by $13.7 billion for 2011, by $14.1 billion for 2012, by $15.1 billion for 2013 and by $16.1 billion for 2014. These cuts represent a total slashing of over $72.1 billion from surface transport construction over the next five years.
Hopefully President Obama's speech today was just the beginning of administration efforts to preserve the budget levels of infrastructure spending included in the House resolution once the conference committee sends a final version to the floor of both houses for approval. Call your Senators and ask them what they intend to buy with the $72.1 billion they have slashed from construction spending, and whether whatever it is will do as much to create jobs and stimulate the economy as infrastructure construction will do. When they can't give you any satisfactory answer, mention that restoring spending levels to match the House version of the resolution would be a good way to make sure our country continues the economic gains the stimulus package was designed to initiate.
