$500 Billion dollar plan to upgrade railroads, mass transit, highways hits federal pothole

[Better Believe It]

$500 billion plan to upgrade U.S. transportation hits federal pothole
By SCOTT SMITH
Scott Smith is director of strategic initiatives for HNTB Corporation
KansasCity.com
July 13, 2009

Our roads, highways and bridges are crumbling under the strain of overuse and old age.

But a comprehensive solution may have encountered a bottleneck that will postpone for 18 months or longer a push to correct the sorry state of our surface transportation system. Delay is something we can no longer afford ....

We find ourselves in this predicament because we have not had a national transportation plan since the interstate highway system was launched in 1956.

U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, addressed these huge needs by introducing the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009. Oberstar proposes spending $500 billion over the next six years to transform our antiquated system into the reliable, sophisticated network we need to safely and efficiently move people and goods.

The legislation would provide approximately:

•$337 billion for highway construction, including at least $100 billion to begin long-awaited repairs to our national highway system and bridges.

•$100 billion for mass transit, including $12 billion for repairs.

•$50 billion to fund 11 high-speed rail corridors linking major metropolitan areas.

The total investment would create or sustain about 6 million family-wage jobs, many here in the Midwest as our region continues to grow in importance as a transportation hub.

Unfortunately, Oberstar’s bill has collided with a proposal put forth by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The secretary wants Congress to pass an 18-month highway authorization bill that would put off a comprehensive, long-term solution and instead perpetuate a piecemeal mix of half-measures and temporary remedies for our nation’s transportation woes.

This collision need not turn into a pileup — if we make the right choice. Oberstar’s approach is the right way to go.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1322647.html


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Will Oberstar’s Grand Highway Plan Stall?
By Colby Itkowitz, CQ Staff
June 27, 2009

Oberstar recently made public the outline of an authorization bill for the government’s highway and transit programs that he hopes will be the capstone of his long legislative career: a six-year, $450 billion package he describes as rivaling President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s creation of the Interstate Highway System more than a half-century ago.

The approximately 800-page draft measure that Oberstar has been refining for months envisions an ambitious overhaul, consolidating more than 100 individual federal programs into four broad categories, while pumping billions of dollars into new highway and high-speed rail projects. Most significant, it would require that federal money be spent to achieve specific goals and measures — cutting congestion in a city by a particular amount, for example — rather than distributing it only by formula among states or through congressional earmarks.

This moment, which is the apex of his political career, could not have come at a worse time for a chairman who puts such a high value on policy purity and such a relatively low value on political posturing. It’s been clear for months that President Obama and Oberstar’s fellow Democrats who are higher up in the congressional power structure are in no hurry to tackle a multi-year highway and transit bill, because they would have to find a way to pay for it — and the White House has said a flat “no” to the notion of raising the gasoline tax, even temporarily, as Oberstar has proposed.

In fact, no sooner had Oberstar arranged to release an outline of his proposal than Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood went to Capitol Hill to reveal the administration’s own plan: an 18-month extension of current programs combined with a few of Obama’s favorite ideas — nothing like the full-blown overhaul of which Oberstar dreams.

“They cut the legs out from under him,” said the top Republican on Oberstar’s committee, John L. Mica of Florida.

It’s not that Oberstar wasn’t warned about how difficult it would be. At the very outset of this Congress, his party’s leaders sharply limited his role in assembling the economic stimulus bill (PL 111-5), which Oberstar and others thought was tailor-made for financing transportation projects that could quickly put people to work. He had written his own proposal and held hearings, gathering testimony from economists and from state and local leaders who vowed that investments in transportation infrastructure were the greatest short-term stimulus. But as the measure grew, Oberstar was edged out, and transportation became just a sliver in the overall package.

Obama, congressional leaders and governors no doubt agree with Oberstar that the nation’s road and rail networks are in desperate need of repair and expansion. But persuading them to pay for it is another matter.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1322647.html

[RepublicanElephant]

1. guess we'll just have to wait for another interstate bridge to collapse...

...which is likely to happen if we wait 18 months to fix our infrastructure mess.

[Better Believe It]

3. 6 Million Jobs to rebuild our transportation infrastructure Not bad!

And out of that will come many more jobs such as those needed to operate new high speed railroad systems.

[truedelphi]

2. Here is one of the major problems that the first stim bill

Did not address - the fact that full authorization of projects is not guaranteed.

So we already have hundreds of billions being offered to various districts across the USA. However, many states have state constitutions that do not allow for the government reps to take hold of any monies unless the monies will fund an entire program. Most major highway and transportation departments have projects that require take two to five years of funding. And so if the Fed stim bill monies that are available only guarantee eighteen months of funding, what then?

I first became aware of this situation when I watched DeFazio (D) of Oregon address some of the Big wigs in charge of the programs while I was watching C Span. De Fazio asked again and again what the monies could do to help him help his state. The monies only provide for the first 18 months of any projects that use them.

The Big wigs, including Rogoff, acted liked he was just a thorn in their side. So DeFazio has a state that needs its projects funded, there is money available, but the money available is off limits to him on account of the fact that Oregon's state constitution is not approving of bridges to nowhere.

Rogoff actually said that DeFazio should just tell the state of Oregon to "Trust this Administration."

DeFazio's response was along the lines of the the fact that the notion of "trust" was not built into the state constitution.

Allin all, the Federal Government should be seeing to it that the monies offered are offered in a sensible way. Trust should not be part of the debate.

[Better Believe It]

4. Oberstar bucks Obama on transportation vision

Oberstar bucks Obama on transportation vision
The veteran Minnesota congressman is ready to take on the administration over a delay in policy makeover.

By KEVIN DIAZ, Star Tribune
July 16, 2009 - 7:54 PM

WASHINGTON - Moments before Minnesota Democrat Jim Oberstar planned to roll out his $450 billion transportation makeover last month, he was called to an adjoining room in the Rayburn House Office Building. There, he was confronted by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who told him that the Obama administration wanted him to hold off on his bill for 18 months.

Floored by the news, Oberstar pressed forward with the legislation anyway -- setting him on a collision course with the White House over his plan to transform the nation's transportation policies in the next six years by improving infrastructure and speeding up investments in trains and mass transit.

Though it appears to be an uphill climb in the Senate, where some key Democrats have acquiesced to the president, Oberstar has become increasingly critical of the White House. He continued the drumbeat Thursday. "We don't need an 18-month learning curve," he told members of the House Transportation Committee, which he chairs.

He also made clear his intention to pass the bill in the House with support from Republicans, some of whom have expressed sympathy for his predicament. "I've never seen a chairman undermined by an administration in the 30 years I've been around this place like they hosed our chairman," said Rep. John Mica of Florida, the ranking Republican on the committee.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif, who heads the Senate committee that deals with public works, moved this week to approve the 18-month delay, arguing that it would be difficult to increase the gas tax in the near term even with the support of labor groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has called on Congress to pass Oberstar's bill.

State officials say the highway bill could serve as a permanent stimulus to supplement the $787 billion package Congress approved this year to create jobs and lift the nation out of recession. "Our concern is whether the funding for projects continues the momentum of the stimulus," said Serge Phillips, federal relations manager for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Please real the complete article at:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/50981057.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUI

[high density]

5. Six years? Let's spend the money now

No sense in waiting.

[Better Believe It]

6. It's impossible to do all of that in a single year.

You may as well suggest that all those projects be started and completed in a month.