The House of Representatives took a huge step forward this week by passing the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA LU). This bill will provide $2.3 billion for important West Virginia transportation projects over the next five years. This is a crucial bill for West Virginia, but we still have a long road to travel before the bill is signed into law.

Through my senior position on the House Transportation Committee, I helped secure the $2.3 billion for West Virginia, and also $75 million for local transportation projects in southern West Virginia. This funding is a big win for West Virginia and it will help create good jobs, new jobs that pay well throughout southern West Virginia. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that 47,500 new jobs are created for every $1 billion spent on infrastructure, which would mean over 100,000 new jobs for West Virginia. The future prosperity of our region and the creation of new jobs, in my opinion, are tied to what I call the Three T's - Transportation, Technology and Tourism.

I secured funding for local projects throughout southern West Virginia. These projects include the Beckley Intermodal Gateway; the King Coal Highway; also known as the I-73/74 Corridor, in Mercer, Mingo and Wayne Counties; Route 10 in Logan; the Coalfields Expressway; the New River Parkway; the Shawnee Parkway; and the East Beckley Bypass, which includes funding to alleviate traffic congestion in the Beaver/Shady Spring area of Raleigh County.

Each of these projects plays a critical role in the transportation system of southern West Virginia. These projects will help improve the safety of our roads, open up our State to new businesses and tourism opportunities, and create roadways that make it quicker and easier to travel southern West Virginia.

As the bill was debated on the House floor this week, I was able to meet with representatives from the King Coal Highway (I-73/74) project. When completed, I-73/74 will run from the Great Lakes all the way to the Myrtle Beach area. The section in West Virginia will run from Bluefield to Huntington, opening up our region and allowing industry more efficient access to opportunities in West Virginia.

I am very excited about this bill and confident that it will soon become law, but as I said before we still have a long road to travel. After passing the House this week, the bill will now go to the Senate. If it passes the Senate, which is expected, it will then go to a conference committee between the House and Senate. The bill resulting from the conference must then pass both the House and the Senate again in order to go to the President to be signed into law.

Last year similar bills passed the House and the Senate, but the final bill was stalled due to infighting between Republicans in Congress and the President. Unfortunately, rumors of the bill having a similar fate are circling because President Bush has threatened to veto this legislation unless it meets his arbitrary demands. Vetoing the bill would leave West Virginia without much-needed transportation funding. If we extend the funding levels set in 1998 again, which we have done six times already, then it will be a sad day for West Virginia. The White House needs to stop playing politics with this important transportation legislation. I am continuing to work to make sure that a bill gets to the President's desk and I hope that he shares my feelings in recognizing the necessity of this transportation bill.