WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter sent today to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, called for the immediate passage of the bipartisan Senate transportation bill that saves or creates 2.9 million jobs and is fully paid for.  In the letter, Senators Boxer and Johnson cited the urgency of acting prior to March 31^st, when the authority for funding America’s surface transportation systems expires.

Senators Boxer and Johnson copied the letter to all Members of the House of Representatives including a state-by-state chart showing the number of jobs at stake.

The letter states:

March 15, 2012

Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor:

Enclosed is a chart that clearly shows the number of jobs in every state that will be saved or created by the bipartisan Senate surface transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century (MAP-21).

This legislation passed the Senate yesterday by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 74-22.  There is an urgent need to get this bill to the President’s desk, because nearly three million jobs are at stake if Congress does not act by March 31^st, when the current surface transportation extension expires.

Nationwide, MAP-21 sustains almost 1.9 million jobs, including over 55,000 jobs in Ohio and almost 40,000 jobs in Virginia.  MAP-21 also creates up to one million additional jobs through the expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, which leverages local funds to accelerate transportation infrastructure projects.

We ask you to immediately take up and pass the Senate’s bipartisan transportation bill.  The reforms included in MAP-21 improve surface transportation programs by maintaining current funding levels for highways and public transportation, consolidating over two-thirds of all highway programs, eliminating earmarks, establishing a national freight program, improving safety oversight of public transportation, and instituting performance measures and accountability for transportation infrastructure investments. This bill is also fully paid for.

The surface transportation authorization bill is by far the biggest jobs legislation the Congress will take up this year.  It is imperative that Congress pass and the President sign into law this bill by March 31^st, because the failure to act means that the nation’s surface transportation programs will be shut down.  The nation simply cannot afford these devastating job losses.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.  We stand ready to help.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer                                                 Tim Johnson

Chairman                                                         Chairman

Committee on Environment                         Committee on Banking, Housing

and Public Works                                             and Urban Affairs

cc: All Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

Fifty-six years ago, it took President Eisenhower a year to convince Congress – and the country – to make an unprecedented investment in America’s highway system.

After all, building 47,000 miles of interstate highways across the nation would require an unparalleled effort and an unprecedented investment.

The project required enough concrete to build six sidewalks to the moon. And it cost $50 billion – or the equivalent of almost half a trillion dollars today.

The project was hugely successful.

It created jobs. It connected farms and factories, tiny town and towering cities. And it allowed manufacturers and merchants to ship goods across the country for the first time in our nation’s history.

Looking back on his great effort to pass the first highway bill, President Eisenhower considered it a crowning accomplishment of his presidency.

“More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America,” he wrote in his memoir. “Its impact on the American economy – the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up – was beyond calculation.”

Fifty-six years later, Congress is once again considering transportation legislation, and an investment in this country’s crumbling roads, bridges and train tracks.

But we have the benefit of history on our side.

We know from 56 years of experience that investing in America’s roadways and railways will create and sustain jobs.

And we have no doubt that building a world-class transportation system will help us rebuild our world-class economy.

That is why one of the most conservative members of the Senate, the Senior Senator from Oklahoma, and one of the most liberal members of the Senate, the Junior Senator from California, have joined hands to advance the bipartisan transportation bill before this body.

The bill is comprised of four measures reported out of the Environment and Public Works, Banking, Commerce and Finance committees with bipartisan support. And both sides have agreed to a package of 37 amendments to this legislation.

But in today’s political climate, bipartisan support isn’t enough to keep good legislation alive.

In today’s political climate, 85 votes to begin debate on a measure aren’t enough to guarantee that measure will become law.

The transportation legislation under consideration is truly bipartisan. It will create or sustain 3 million badly needed construction jobs.

Yet, Republican leaders have wasted almost a month of the Senate’s time obstructing this valuable measure for political reasons.

Unfortunately, Democrats cannot keep construction crews working to repair 70,000 collapsing bridges across the country without Republican cooperation.

Without Republican cooperation, we cannot expand the nation’s mass transit system to accommodate tens of thousands of new riders every year.

And without Republican cooperation we cannot create and save 3 million jobs repairing crumbling pavement and building safer sidewalks.

It will take a bipartisan effort to advance this bipartisan legislation.

Frank Turner, a former Federal Highway Administrator, said work on this country’s transportation system “will never be finished because America will never be finished.”

Although the work is never finished, it is up to Congress to sustain the effort.

And unless Congress acts this month, work on highways and bridges and train tracks across the country will grind to a halt.

Unless Congress acts, the American economy will pay the price for partisan bickering.

So I am hopeful my Republican colleagues will join Democrats to put American jobs ahead of procedural games, and help us advance this vital transportation legislation.

A few potholes on the drive to work may be an inconvenience.

But for companies that ship $10 trillion worth of goods across the country each year, disintegrating roads are more than a nuisance.

A crowded train ride to the office or a broken escalator at the station may be a hassle.

But for 51 million Americans with disabilities – many of whom rely on public transportation to get around – outdated stations and overcrowded trains are more than a minor annoyance.

This country’s crumbling highways, roadways, railways and bridges are more than an inconvenience. They’re a drain on our economy.

Twenty percent of American roads don’t meet safety standards.

More than 70,000 bridges in this country need to be replaced or overhauled.

And our public transportation system can’t keep up with the pace of growing ridership.

Nine out of 10 Americans say rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges is important.

Democrats in the Senate agree. Modernizing our transit systems and rebuilding the roads American families and businesses depend on will help fuel our economic recovery.

This legislation is too important to be bogged down with unrelated, ideological amendments. Senate Republicans should not commandeer a transportation bill to try to take away women’s access to health services such as contraception, mammograms and other cancer screenings.

The Surface Transportation jobs bill the Senate is considering will create or save 2 million American jobs. And it has broad, bipartisan support.

I respect and appreciate the work done by Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe on this legislation.

Unfortunately, our House Republican colleagues have gone in the opposite direction. Their bill is a love note to the Tea Party.

The House bill didn’t get a single Democratic vote in committee. The Senate bill, on the other hand, passed out of committee unanimously.

Even some Republicans don’t even support the way the House bill is paid for – by drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

And Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, said the House legislation is the worst transportation bill he has seen in 35 years of public service.

There are plenty of reasons, but here are a few:

• The House legislation would gut public health and environmental protections.
• It would ax funding for pedestrian safety, even though a pedestrian is injured or killed by a car in this country every seven minutes.
• And it would starve our nation’s public transportation systems.

The House bill reverses 30 years of good policy of dedicating funding each year for mass transit. That policy was enacted in 1982 by President Reagan.

Many House Republicans don’t support the plan to shortchange millions of Americans – especially seniors and people with disabilities – who count on public transportation.

And everyone from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to AARP has come out against the drastic approach taken by the House bill.

On the other hand, the U.S. Chamber and hundreds of other national organizations support of the Senate bill.

I am disappointed that House Republicans have once again chosen the partisan path.

Rebuilding a transportation system our economy can rely on shouldn’t be divisive.

Given a choice between working with Democrats to create good-paying jobs for American workers and playing politics, House Republicans chose politics once again.

This legislation would put 2 million hard-working Americans back on the job while at the same time investing in repairing our infrastructure.

With this bill, Republicans have an opportunity to show they can focus on job creation, and we hope they’ll seize it.  Unrelated legislation that would limit women’s access to health care has no place in a transportation bill.

Americans, especially the struggling middle class, have no appetite for political games.

As Nevada Senator Harry Reid said earlier today, “I would like to believe they [Republicans] share our goal, as Eisenhower and Reagan did, of rebuilding a world-class transportation system to support a world-class economy.”

Watch the video clip below to learn more about the bill, and how it would restore critical jobs.