House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Reviews First Year of Recovery Act

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has held 14 hearings to date on the progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the latest hearing Tuesday dealt with the first full year of the program. According to the Committee, the ARRA has resulted in 10,348 highway, transit and wastewater projects breaking ground, creating or sustaining nearly 300,000 direct jobs and 938,000 indirect jobs, while 5,700 more projects are in the works. Additionally, the Recovery Act is helping improve to 24,000 miles of roads and 1,100 bridges. Finally, 77 percent of the stimulus' formula-based road and transit spending, or $26.4 billion, has been put out to bid by state officials. The Committee's analysis of the job creation from the ARRA validated that infrastructure investment is a significant job creator. AGC was also encouraged by the Committee's call for further investment in infrastructure as a means for job creation. Other issues from the hearing included the recent TIGER grant awards, small business and minority/women contractor participation in Recovery Act contracts, and implementation of Buy American provisions.