CALPIRG Blog

The House officially passed H.R. 1, the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act last Wednesday. Now the ball is in the Senate’s court.

This act is a great first step to invigorating the economy and also modernizing and expanding the country’s transportation system. Obama’s original vision to use infrastructure investment as a path to revitalizing our economy was not only a wise but a necessary move. Our crumbling infrastructure, level of global warming pollution, and current congestion all demand it. In California alone, there are over 3,000 structurally deficient bridges. Also, transportation is responsible for over 41% of our state’s global warming pollution emissions and Californian’s waste time and money in traffic.

While this demonstrates the need for transportation restructuring, there is also the countless benefits from public transportation investment. It actually increases mobility, cuts our dependence on fossil fuels, reduces gasoline costs, and creates jobs. In fact, every dollar invested in public transportation generates approximately 2 dollars in benefits.

The House package includes $12 billion dedicated for transportation projects. This proportion is lower then the 50-50 split with road funding that we originally fought for. However, it was significantly strengthened in the last hour by an amendment offered by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), Michael Mahon (D-NY), and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) that added an additional $3 billion in capital funds for transit projects in communities of sizes across the country. We applaud this amendment. It alone creates or preserves an additional 133,000 jobs.

Now it is up to the Senate to act. And initial proposals give us reason to worry.

Currently, the Senate version contains $8.4 billion for public transportation, almost $4 billion lower then funding in the House’s stimulus package. There is hope on the horizon with Senator Schumer (NY) proposing an amendment to increase transportation funding by $6.5 billion. We will work to make sure it does, because as Rep. Mica (FL) said, “Nothing will create more jobs than transportation infrastructure.”

Let’s pass a plan that creates jobs and rebuilds our economy in short term, but also helps to solve California’s long-term problems. Senate, it is up to you.