Transportation For America » T4 America applauds President Obama’s initiative for 21st Century infrastructure

T4 America applauds President Obama’s initiative for 21st Century infrastructure

September 6, 2010
By Stephen Lee Davis

President Obama was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Labor Day talking up the White House’s brand new plan to create some American labor and jobs through $50 billion in new transportation and infrastructure investment.

Included in the proposal is an infrastructure bank, a plan to rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail, and rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of runway and install a new air traffic control system.

But perhaps most notably, the White House hits many of the same notes that T4 America has been sounding for the last two years in the official White House release, focusing especially on the need for a long-term transportation bill, with some serious reforms:

The President proposes to pair this with a long-term framework to reform and expand our nation’s investment in transportation infrastructure. Since the end of last year, when the last long-term surface transportation legislation expired, these investments have been continued on a temporary basis, even as the trust fund to finance them has fallen into insolvency. If we are to enjoy the benefits that come from a world-class transportation system, Congress must enact a long-term reauthorization that expands and reforms our infrastructure investments and returns the transportation trust fund to solvency. To jumpstart job creation, this long-run policy front-loads – through a $50 billion up-front investment – a significant share of the new infrastructure resources. As with other long-run policies, the Administration is committed to working with Congress to fully pay for the plan.

“The President’s initiative, as we understand it based on the broad outlines issued today, will give much-needed help to the economy while kick-starting the long-delayed transformation of the nation’s outdated surface transportation program,” said T4 America Director James Corless in an official statement.

“While the ‘front-loading’ of a new transportation authorization will put many thousands of Americans to work over the next couple of years, this should not be seen as a mere short-term stimulus. This kind of aggressive, multi-year construction and rehabilitation effort is fundamental to the long-term health of our economy. The alternative is gridlocked cities, stranded rural residents, hampered freight delivery and continued over-reliance on increasingly hard-to-get oil supplies.

“What is most is encouraging is that the Administration has recognized that the earmark-driven, unaccountable spending of the past must end. The President today has promised to press for carefully targeted investments in those projects that compete best in satisfying clearly articulated national goals for energy security, safety, affordability, environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness. We look forward in coming weeks to more details on how the Administration fulfills these goals for reform. The proposal to pay for the initial installment by removing some of the unnecessary subsidies to oil and other highly profitable corporations also strikes us as a sound approach.”

Filed under: Campaign Blog, Press Releases
Tags: featured, infrastructure, investment, obama, Press Releases, reauthorization

billb

Please visit the link below for an article about the cost/green benefits of placing a Park Roof on the proposed CRC Mega Bridge here in Portland.
This bridge is the key to west coast travel and trade , and can be a model for 21st Century Bridges across the country. This bridge is a 10 year project with jobs for thousands , and greatly increased mobility
for trucks , commuters , and vacationers.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=127810849697704800
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/greeneconomy/too-little-of-a-good-thing/ Too Little of a Good Thing?

[...] Corliss, director of the advocacy group Transportation for America, praised Obama’s initiative as part of an “aggressive, multi-year construction and [...]
http://renewlv.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/federal-transportation-bill-where-we-are-where-were-going/ Federal Transportation Bill: Where We Are & Where We’re Going « Crossroads

[...] Lee Davis outlines the main points of the White House plan on the T4A blog: Included in the proposal is an infrastructure bank, a plan to rebuild 150,000 miles of roads, [...]