Pro-Business Alliance Puts Muscle Into Major Federal Infrastructure Spending

Posted: August 25th, 2008 10:00 AM GMT-05:00

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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."

Aside from the Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure, others are also calling for heightened federal infrastructure investment. The nation's mayors earlier this month held their second Mayors '08 Action Forum on Infrastructure in New York City, where mayors called for a new local/federal partnership to bring critical investment to our nation's cities in transportation, water and other critical public infrastructure. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz says he believes that Washington no longer invests in its cities and its people. "Washington has lost its values - lost its principles -- lost its sense of purpose -- engaging in endless debate and partisan bickering while people in this country continue to suffer. ... Plain and simple, Washington has abandoned us," Diaz says.

Also, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg are co-chairs of the Building America's Future Coalition, is the goal of which is building support for the federal government to play a larger role in the funding of America's infrastructure.

Based on a national survey conducted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), there are more than 3,000 infrastructure projects nationwide, totaling over $18 billion, that are ready to be built. Once these projects are funded, it will be only three months before supplies are purchased and workers start receiving -- and spending -- their paychecks, the Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure contends.

"Both presidential candidates, along with Congress, must not waste this critical opportunity to put the economy back on track by funding critical infrastructure projects in a stimulus bill, one of the most immediate and sustainable ways to shore up our struggling economy," says Talent, honorary chairman of the Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure. "Investments in our country's roads, rails and bridges literally pay for themselves, creating a five-fold return in benefits to the state and national economy. For every billion dollars spent on infrastructure, 42,000 jobs are created or sustained, and more than $5.70 of economic benefits is generated for every dollar invested."Watch more breaking news now on our video feed:Bookmark and drop back in for more news from the nation's capital. Newstex ID: LIFE-0002-27583621

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