Word: oberstar
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...Congress knows better than James Oberstar that pumping billions of dollars into infrastructure spending to help stimulate the economy is easier said than done. When he first came to Capitol Hill more than four decades ago as an administrative assistant for the head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Oberstar witnessed firsthand the pitfalls that President Kennedy encountered in trying to reverse the slumping economy in 1963. At the time, Kennedy "said to the Congress, You pass it, I'll sign it," Oberstar recalled on a recent morning in his Capitol Hill office. The only problem was, the infrastructure...
...another new Democratic President aims to kick-start the economy, Oberstar finds himself in a unique position to help shape another unprecedented national infrastructure boom. The top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee, where he has represented Minnesota for 34 years, Oberstar says not only is the system primed for such an infusion but he believes the roughly $65 billion in infrastructure stimulus requested by President-elect Barack Obama will create at least a million jobs by June. (Read "How to Spend a Trillion Dollars...
...want to buy stupid stuff. "We keep hearing we need to spend more. On what?" a transition aide asked. Obama's latest economic report predicted at least three more years of fairly high unemployment even if the stimulus succeeds, so speed can't be the only criterion. Democrat Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has suggested that shovel-ready should apply to projects that can begin within a year, not just 90 days. This would give a real boost to mass transit; a two-year window would leave even more time to make...
These days, House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Oberstar is flacking a Rebuild America plan that pays new respect to transit, but it still puts highways first; you can't expect too much reform from a guy who's served as a staffer or member of Capitol Hill's prime pork committee since 1963, a guy who earmarked a $3 million highway in the last transportation bill to relieve the notorious congestion between County Road 565 in Hoyt Lakes, Minn., and the intersection of Highways 21 and 70 in Babbitt. Meanwhile, states like Alabama, Kansas and Texas have been releasing lists...
...obvious solution would be some kind of independent arbiter to establish performance measures and evaluate stimulus projects for timeliness and tails as well as competitiveness and carbon. During his campaign, Obama proposed an infrastructure bank that wouldn't finance projects that don't produce economic or environmental returns. But Oberstar hasn't put in 45 years just to cede power to a commission. "It's like turning around a battleship," Puentes says. "And we just don't have the time...