For Immediate Release

February 4, 2002

Contact: Jim Berard

(202) 225-6260

 

Oberstar: Bush Budget Will Cost Jobs,

Not Create Them

 

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WASHINGTON—Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Ranking Democratic Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, released the following statement today in response to President Bush’s proposed budget for FY 2003:

 

Oberstar Statement on FY2003 Budget Proposal

 

In his State of the Union Address last week, President Bush said, “My economic security plan can be summed up in one word: jobs.”  Regrettably, the budget proposal that the President sent to Capitol Hill today breaks faith with that promise.

 

This is most evident in the proposed budget for the Federal-Aid Highway program.  The President proposes only the minimum spending required under TEA 21.  This will result in a drop of some $9 billion in funds available to the states for major highway, bridge and tunnel projects in Fiscal Year 2003 from FY2002.  This cut will have effects beyond 2003 as well, as states cut back on future projects, which take several years to plan, bid, contract and complete.

 

A billion dollars invested in highway construction creates more than 42,000 jobs.  A $9 billion cut in these projects will potentially cost hundreds of thousands of jobs—decent-paying jobs that can support a family.

 

Our economy depends on our being able to get raw materials to the factory and finished goods to the marketplace.  For this we need a sufficient transportation infrastructure. TEA 21 was an unprecedented effort to undo decades of neglect and bring our highways, bridges and tunnels up to the standards our 21^st Century economy will demand.  In the

first three years of TEA 21, we made substantial progress on this front.  The President’s budget recommendation halts this progress.

 

The President’s budget proposal also cuts our nation’s investments in water infrastructure.  The Environmental Protection Agency’s state grant program for clean water and other infrastructure is cut $270 million.  Similarly, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction budget is cut $276 million, or 16 percent.

 

The budget document submitted today is a starting point, not the end of the process.  It is now up to Congress, over the next several months, to take the President’s recommendations and develop a national budget.

 

A budget proposal is a statement of priorities.  The President’s recommendations submitted today show that his priorities do not lie with creating living-wage jobs, or preserving those we now have.

 

(NOTE: TEA 21 is the Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century, the 1998 law that authorized funding for federal highway and transit programs for Fiscal Years 1998-2003.)

 

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