Aug. 21, 2008 ( delivered by Newstex) -- An organization that includes a powerful Washington pro-business group is calling for a new economic stimulus package aimed at improving U.S. roadways and other infrastructure. The effort, the alliance says, could create 750,000 American jobs nationally in three months.

The Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure is calling on 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as well as members of Congress to support new federal spending to provide funding for the country's crumbling highways, bridges and transportation systems, according to an announcement from the alliance. The powerful pro-business National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) leads the alliance. The alliance also is headed by former Republican senator Jim Talent of Missouri.

That such a powerful and pro-business group as the NAM would get behind federal infrastructure spending adds significant muscle to what had been largely pleas from state and local officials calling for more federal attention to infrastructure. Policymakers, particularly Democrats, have been considering some form of new stimulus package to further lift the U.S. economy out of recession.

Infrastructure also has been a top concern since last year's fatal collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis. That collapse prompted a nationwide evaluation of safety of American bridges, but governments -- local, state and federal -- as of yet have not come up with the billions of dollars required to assure their safety, according to a report published in USA Today last month."Finding solutions to America's crumbling infrastructure is an issue that Senators Obama and McCain and Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle should embrace," says NAM President John Engler, former Republican governor of Michigan. "There are 18 billion dollars in infrastructure projects across the nation that are ready to go -- not 'roads to nowhere,' but projects that have been studied at length and validated beyond question. We must join together to find solutions to this crisis -- and creating jobs by funding the 3,000 highway and transportation projects that are ready to begin immediately is a good place to start."