Although unemployment turned out worse than some forecasters anticipated, there has been some consensus among economists that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year prevented even higher job losses while channeling much-needed relief to states. But spending money quickly often relies on formulas and methods that are outdated, or — as evidenced in last month’s report by the Transportation Equity Network (TEN) and Good Jobs First — inequitable. Minority-owned businesses have received only 10.2 percent of stimulus funds toward federal contracts, while women-owned businesses received 5.9 percent.

The transportation spending priorities in the jobs bill, set for a vote in the House of Representatives today, will provide much needed short-term funding for our roads, bridges and transit systems that will put Americans to work across the country. These “stopgap” provisions will save and create jobs, and give states and localities the opportunity to start bringing their crumbling transportation systems back into a state of good repair

A few hours ago, the House passed a $636 billion defense spending bill that included a two-month extension of the federal transportation law. Don’t count on two months as the final length of an extension though — House members are hedging their bets. Later today, the House will vote on a separate $174 billion jobs bill. Tucked inside that bill is a longer extension of the 2005 transportation bill that would extend SAFETEA-LU all the way to the end of September 2010.

On the eve of the White House jobs summit, James L. Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Peter A. DeFazio (D-OR), chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit today sent President Obama a letter arguing for increased transportation funding. The two called for funding “ready-to-go” projects on the order of $48 billion for highways and $15 billion for public transportation.

This is Transportation For America’s full summary of the provisions and funding requirements for transportation in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Given the need for haste in crafting the bill, congressional and Administration negotiators were handcuffed by backward-looking, existing programs even as they tried to shape investments for a future of reduced oil dependency, greater opportunity for Americans to join the middle class and cleaner transportation choices. Despite some shortcomings resulting from current transportation law, Congress has adopted a bill that if properly enacted by state and local authorities, could be a down payment on a new direction for America’s infrastructure.

UPDATE (2:00 p.m., 02/12/09): Talking Points Memo has acquired a summary of the new bill, which includes a comparison of each spending item to the House and Senate legislation. It looks like the final number for highways is $27.5 billion. The bill to come out of conference also includes $1.3 billion for Amtrak. — We [...]

With the stimulus successfully passed through the Senate, it moves into conference with the House, where the two chambers will try to hammer out the version to be voted on again by each house before heading to the President’s desk if it passes. Here is our side-by-side comparison on the transportation spending in the two versions.

It appears the Senate compromise on the stimulus package keeps transit and highway funding unchanged. We’re suspending our appeal to make calls for now. The Senate will move to vote on the overall stimulus package Monday or Tuesday. Then it moves to a conference committee with the House to determine the balance between the two bills that will ultimately be voted on by both Chambers and sent to the President’s desk.

The so-called “compromise” plan about to be put forth by Senators Nelson and Collins would cut somewhere between $80-100 billion from the Senate stimulus package. In part, by cutting transit’s already paltry amount nearly in half, and raising the amount of highway spending by an undisclosed amount. Call your Senator now!