White House turns back on infrastructure

Despite support from the president-elect, both House and Senate Democratic leaders and the top Republican in the Senate, the White House has been slowly walking away from earlier statements from administration officials that appeared to embrace a new round of stimulus spending, according to NSSGA. Infrastructure, in particular, has been highlighted as spending that is not stimulus in nature due to assertions of "long lag time" between authorizing and actually spending the money. The ATM and TCC coalitions have repeatedly communicated 3,000 projects worth $18 billion that are "ready to go." Now, the White House is reportedly saying Congress must first pass a stimulus bill before the White House will start negotiating on what it finds acceptable for inclusion in that bill, effectively throwing a wrench into the legislative process.

While there is a strong desire in the Democratic caucus to pass another stimulus bill, a new Congress has been elected and the moving in and moving out process has begun complicating passage of any bills in a lame duck Congressional session. Some Democratic staff are signaling that the Senate could take up one of two previously House-passed stimulus measures and get it to the president quickly. The first bill was a stand alone extension of jobless benefits and the second bill is the $60 billion stimulus bill that includes infrastructure funds. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are calling for certain tax reforms to stimulate the economy, an option Democrats would rather wait on until a Democrat is in the White House to improve their bargaining leverage.

Nevertheless, President-elect Obama said in a press conference late last week that, "If it [a stimulus bill] does not get done in a lame duck session, it will be the first thing I do when I reach the Oval Office." NSSGA's letter to the president and president-elect urges infrastructure be included in the stimulus package.

NSSGA and its Americans for Transportation Mobility and Transportation Construction Coalition partners will continue to press Congress on the need to make infrastructure investment a key component of the next stimulus bill and urge passage before final adjournment of the 110th Congress.