PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
“…I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America’s roads and rails and runways for the long term. I want America to have the best infrastructure in the world.  We used to have the best infrastructure in the world.  We can have it again.  We are going to make it happen…This is a plan that will be fully paid for.  It will not add to the deficit over time -– we’re going to work with Congress to see to that.  We want to set up an infrastructure bank to leverage federal dollars and focus on the smartest investments.  We’re going to continue our strategy to build a national high-speed rail network that reduces congestion and travel times and reduces harmful emissions.  We want to cut waste and bureaucracy and consolidate and collapse more than 100 different programs that too often duplicate each other.  So we want to change the way Washington spends your tax dollars.  We want to reform a haphazard, patchwork way of doing business.”

…

“We applaud President Obama for announcing a bold course to rebuild America’s infrastructure during these difficult economic times…A reformed, robust transportation infrastructure program will speed needed repairs for our crumbling assets, eliminate time Americans waste in traffic, and establish a true high-speed passenger rail network. We are a nation of innovators and builders, and the President’s announcement will mean that thousands of Americans will go back to work to repair and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure.”
-Governor Ed Rendell (D-Pennsylvania), Co-Chair, Building America’s Future

“The President’s initiative, as we understand it based on the broad outlines issued today, will give much-needed help to the economy while kick-starting the long-delayed transformation of the nation’s outdated surface transportation program.”
-James Corless, Director, Transportation for America

“We are highly supportive of President Obama’s proposal to immediately invest $50 billion to rebuild roads, expand high speed rail, and rehabilitate airport runways…We have demonstrated that investing in transportation infrastructure is one of the fastest ways to create and sustain jobs.”
-John Horsley, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

“New jobs, renewed infrastructure, and a new model for transportation investments–it sounds like a lot of work to me. And I, for one, am ready.”
-Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation

“A merit-driven national infrastructure bank could be the vehicle for green-lighting projects that have the highest return on investment rather than the greatest political reward. Another round of projects that support bottom-up decision-making that links transportation, housing, energy, and environmental concerns.”
-Robert Puentes, Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution

Tags: AASHTO, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Barack Obama, Brookings Institution, Ed Rendell, Edward G. Rendell, Governor Rendell, Infrastructure Bank, James Corless, John Horsley, Milwaukee, Obama Administration, PA, Pennsylvania, President Obama, Ray LaHood, Robert Puentes, Secretary of Transporation, T4America, Transportation for America, WA, Wisconsin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Aging Infrastructure, Bipartisan, Competitiveness, Congestion, Democrat, Economic Stimulus, Employment, Equity, Funding, High Speed Rail, Infra Views, Jobs, National, Policy, Private Investment, Public Transportation, Rail, Recession, Recovery, Roads, Tax, Transit . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.