Obama: Pass transportation bill

Donovan Slack, Politico

Saturday, March 24, 2012 | 1:50 p.m.

President Barack Obama jumped into the congressional fray over a stalled transportation bill on Saturday, saying the House should “put aside partisan posturing” and pass the measure authorizing $109 billion in spending over two years.

“So much of America needs to be rebuilt right now. We’ve got crumbling roads and bridges,” the president said in his weekly address to the nation. “And we’ve got thousands of unemployed construction workers who’ve been looking for a job ever since the housing market collapsed. But once again, we’re waiting on Congress.”

The Senate passed the bill on March 14, but the House has not taken it up. Current funding for transportation projects is set to dry up on March 31, and without an extension, Obama said, “Construction sites will go idle. Workers will have to go home. And our economy will take a hit.

“This Congress cannot let that happen. Not at a time when we should be doing everything in our power — Democrats and Republicans — to keep this recovery moving forward. The Senate did their part,” the president said. “Now it’s up to the House to follow suit; to put aside partisan posturing, end the gridlock, and do what’s right for the American people.”

House Republicans have so far offered only a 90-day extension. Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, told POLITICO Friday that the House wants to “do better” than the Senate bill, and “the three-month extension is the best way to get there.”

Boehner said on Thursday that he wants the time to put together a measure that would open up more federal lands for oil and gas production as a way to pay for the transportation spending.

“The problem with the Senate bill is that it doesn’t address the issue of rising gas prices and energy,” he said. “We believe that if we are going to reauthorize the highway bill, American energy production ought to be a critical part of this.”

Obama maintained in his address that more drilling is not the answer to skyrocketing gas prices. “Even if we drilled everywhere, we’d still be relying on other countries for oil.”

He sounded the popular Republican refrain of job creation and growth, pointing to a Treasury report released Friday that concluded the transportation investment would benefit the economy and put many unemployed construction workers back to work.

“This is common sense. Right now, all across this country, we’ve got contractors and construction workers who have never been more eager to get back on the job,” Obama said, noting that 90 percent of the jobs created would go to the middle class. “Those are exactly the jobs we need right now, and they’ll make the economy stronger for everybody.”

The same Treasury report notes that improved roads and other transportation infrastructure will also save Americans money on gas by alleviating congestion, which currently wastes 1.9 billion gallons of gas and costs drivers more than $100 billion in wasted fuel and lost time.

In his address, the president also reprised his all-of-the-above energy mantra of recent weeks, pushing federal investments in alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, and battery technologies that fuel electric cars.

“So tell Congress that if we invest in new technology and new energy; in new roads and bridges and construction projects, we can keep growing our economy, put our people back to work, and remind the world why the United States is the greatest nation on Earth,” he said.