House Republican Transportation Bill Kills Half a Million Jobs   by Mike Hall, Jul 7, 2011

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In an astounding display of economic shortsightedness, House Republicans want to cut transportation and transit infrastructure funding so deeply that it would cost half a million jobs next year alone and send the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems into even deeper disrepair.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the proposed six-year transportation reauthorization bill from Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) is “unconscionable… at a time when 14 million Americans who want to work cannot find jobs and our nation suffers a $2.2 trillion infrastructure deficit.”

It defies imagination that the Republican leadership and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would turn their backs on the needs of our country and pretend it is good government.

Mica’s proposal would cut transportation funding to a level that is 20 percent less than the last reauthorization bill signed by President Bush in 2005.

AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) President Edward Wytkind says the proposal is “the worst highway and transit funding bill in modern history [and] a loser for the American economy and a loser for American workers.”

At a time when our transportation system is crumbling, and unemployment continues to hover around 9 percent nationally, we need to be doing more—not less—to address today’s and tomorrow’s transportation needs.

Nothing in this outline would address the job cuts, service disruptions and fare increases plaguing transit systems across the country. And with a push to privatize transit services, more jobs will be lost and service will be undermined in a race to the bottom.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also blasted the Mica bill. Janet Kavinoky, the Chamber’s transportation lobbyist told the Wall Street Journal that the cuts

will be devastating to construction and related industries—materials, equipment, design, engineering. As important, in the long run, disinvestment results in a less competitive economy and a drag on GDP due to underperforming infrastructure.

In a letter to Mica, Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Mike Simpson (R-Id.) wrote:

Reducing investment in America’s transportation system at this time will have a negative impact on the construction, engineering, manufacturing and materials companies which are already struggling with high unemployment…Transportation infrastructure is one of the most cost efficient and effective ways to reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy. Studies suggest that for every $1 billion spent on transportation projects more than 35,000 jobs are created.