Highway money ready to flow to states
President Bush signed into law Wednesday the $286 billion six-year surface transportation bill, which was two years in the making after the previous spending blueprint expired.
The bill is the largest public works project in U.S. history. Eighty percent of the money will go to pay for highway-related projects and 20 percent is devoted to mass transit improvements.
“Our economy depends on us having the most efficient, reliable transportation system in the world,” President Bush said during a signing ceremony at a Caterpillar plant in Aurora, Ill. “If we want people working in America, we’ve got to make sure our highways and roads are modern. We’ve got to bring up this transportation system into the 21st century. I mean, you can’t expect your farmers to be able to get goods to market if we don’t have a good road system.”
Critics point out there are more than 6,000 pork barrel projects worth $24 billion that members of Congress slipped into the bill.
The highway bill includes money for many intermodal freight transportation projects. Many states have held off on road construction projects until federal money became available.