Transportation Committee Head Says Infrastructure Spending Equals Jobs

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Correspondent

The head of the House Transportation Committee is calling for $69 billion in federal funds for highway and transit projects to help create jobs and boost the economy.

Speaking on Capitol Hill a day before President Obama's "jobs summit," Rep. James Oberstar said transportation funding should be part of any future stimulus programs considered by Congress, Reuters reported. Upgrading the nation's transportation infrastructure, Oberstar said, would fulfill a national need while creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Oberstar, a Democrat from Minnesota, sent a letter to President Obama outlining his plan and said he hopes the issue will be addressed during the jobs forum set to begin Thursday.

The $787 billion stimulus bill passed in February included $34 billion for transportation projects that have created 340,000 jobs in construction and related industries, according to Oberstar. But, he said, most of those jobs will end by late spring.

Filed Under: Economy, Obama Administration

Tagged: Daily Guidance, DailyGuidance, james oberstar, JamesOberstar, transportation

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.