House Dems Want Infrastructure, Transportation Materials Made In US

By Andrea Salazar

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge may be located in the United States, but parts of it are stamped, “Made in China.”

To combat the loss of manufacturing jobs to China, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Democrats announced Thursday the introduction of a bill tightening the requirements for investments in infrastructure and transportation.

The Invest in American Jobs Act, sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), would mandate that all materials used in infrastructure and transportation projects funded by U.S. taxpayers be made in the United States.

“Made in China but paid for by American tax payers,” Rahall said referring to the Chinese materials and man-power used in replacing a part of the Bay Bridge. “We are no longer just buying cheap trinkets from China, we are literally buying bridges and major transportation infrastructure, while outsourcing innovation and capabilities that could be fostered and strengthened right here in the U.S. of A.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) echoed those sentiments and challenged Republicans in the House to pass the bill as part of a transportation bill expected in January, warning that otherwise “the jobs that you are going to tout that you’re creating with this bill are going to be created in other countries, not for American workers.”

Representatives from the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers and United Streetcar also joined Rahall and other committee members in support of the Invest in American Jobs Act at a news conference Thursday.

Rahall told reporters that the bill’s reception has been “not negative,” adding that the bill is important because “when we make it in America, more Americans can make it.”

The Senate Rebuilds Pakistan

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

In the next 5 years, the Pakistani infrastructure will be fortified by almost $10 billion American dollars, if Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) have anything to say about it. The aptly titled Kerry-Lugar Bill will provided money for rebuilding the lives of civilians in war torn Pakistan.

Both Kerry and Lugar said that most of the money that has been funneled into Pakistan in the past few years has gone towards security. The aim of this bill is to shift the balance, to place more of an emphasis on infrastructure.

The Senators want to use the money for building schools, improving health care, building bridges, water projects, and other elements of infrastructure. Kerry said that the target projects are “things that would improve life and give people a sense of progress” to civilians.

The money would also be used for ensuring an independent media, expanding human rights and the rule of law, expanding transparency in government, rooting out political corruption and countering the drug trade.

Additionally military funding would be conditioned upon several things, including Pakistani security forces preventing al Qaeda and Taliban forces from operating in Pakistan. The military forces would not be able to interfere in politics or in the judicial process, according to the provisions of the bill.

The legislation bill would give $1.5 billion each year from FY 2009-2013, and would recommend similar amounts of money over the subsequent five years. There would be required benchmarks to measuring how effective the funding is, and the President will have to submit semi-annual reports to Congress about progress made.

Pennsylvania Governor pushes for infrastructure revitalization

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell made the case for revitalizing the U.S. infrastructure, explaining that it will improve the country's quality of life, public safety, and economic viability.

Rendell stressed that the scale of the program would need to be significant in order to achieve the desired effects as a vehicle for economic recovery.

"Scale is important in this program. It cannot be 25 billion or 50 billion...our infrastructure is collapsing, it's a danger to public safety, it's killing our quality of life when people need to sit in traffic jams an hour and a half a day, and it is certainly producing an uncompetitive American economy," said Rendell during a summit at the US Chamber of Commerce.

In order to make sure infrastructure improvements are carried out quickly, Rendell discussed a suggested plan to take federal funds away from states if they are not used immediately, a move that Rendell says will create an incentive.

"We need to have a hammer, and the hammer is 'use it or lose it'...we know that in emergency situations in infrastructure can happen readily."

Rendell dismissed the notion that the U.S. does not have the funds for wide-scale infrastructure at this time.

"One thing that's been good about the financial crisis, and there's not much, is that it has finally blown away the answer to good ideas in Washington 'we just don't have the money'. It's pretty clear, whenever they want to have the money, they have the money," said Rendell.

"If we can produce that type of money to bail out financial institutions who may or may not deserve to be bailed out, we can certainly produce a small portion of that money to rebuild the American infrastructure."

Rendell says that he would like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to assume the role of transportation secretary, and also mentions a number of governors he considers contenders, including Tim Kaine of Virginia, Kathy Sebelius of Kansas , and John Corzine of New Jersey.

Governors seek Federal aid for Medicaid & Infrastructure

Governor Jim Douglas (R-Vt.) said “The challenge that we’re facing right now is a real one, and it has a cascading affect when the economy begins to go sour. Economic activity declines, investment is lower, the number of jobs decreases, income tax receipts are down, so a state’s fiscal fixtures begin to deteriorate… States are taking the lead in tightening our belts and reducing state spending… But economists across the political spectrum have made it clear that counter-cyclical spending by the federal government can accelerate our recovery.”

This is why Gov. Douglas says the National Governors Association (NGA) is making two considerate requests of Congress for a state stimulus package. First, support for infrastructure investment. Funding would go to “ready-to-go” state projects, of which more than 70% would go to transportation, and the remainder to renewable energy projects, water and sewage treatment, and investment in broadband infrastructure. Second, the NGA is requesting an increase in support for state Medicaid Programs, which are increasingly demanded during this economic downturn.

Governor Ed Rendell (D-Pa.), Gov. Douglas, and North Carolina General Assembly Speaker Joe Hackney agreed that President-Elect Obama will be very responsive to the NGA’s requests---the question is where the funding will be allocated and in what fashion.

House Committee discusses investing in infrastructure and transportation to boost economy

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure discussed how funding for transportation and infrastructure might stimulate the economy.

Infrastructure investments create benefits that radiate throughout the economy, said Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.). The committee pointed out that transportation and infrastructure projects create thousands of jobs domestically and also immediate benefit small businesses, local and state governments.

We have several public transit projects that are “ready-to-go,” said Congressman John Mica (R-Fla.). The discussion centered on creating a stimulus package to fund transportation projects around the country that would begin construction in 90 to 120 days.

John Irons, research and policy director of the Economic Policy Institute, testified that “the investments would go...beyond the construction industry, they would impact a wide range of industries across the country and across industries.”