Infrastructure Spending Doesn’t Go Far Enough in Stimulus Bill (Rep. John Boozman)

In times of economic uncertainty we need to be implementing programs that create jobs and protect the jobs we already have. That is true in this unprecedented economic environment. The American people are looking to Washington for policies that help revitalize the economy, safeguard jobs and restore consumer confidence.

It would be irresponsible to rush legislation that inadequately spends taxpayer dollars intended to jump start the economy. Transportation and infrastructure spending is an obvious choice for job creation and improvements to our always underfunded roads and bridges, but the proposed funding doesn’t go far enough to tackle the problems that we are facing. We have a shortfall in the amount of money we invest in our infrastructure and that gap will only continue to increase.

The Congressional Budget Office says only about $135 billion designated for infrastructure will actually be spent quickly. We need to make sure funds are appropriated to ready-to-go projects so they don’t sit unused and not have the impact they are intended to have. Infrastructure is one of the most important investments we can make but unfortunately the stimulus proposal doesn’t go far enough.

We need to work in a bipartisan manner to achieve the goals all Americans are hoping this piece of legislation will accomplish. That means maximizing taxpayer dollars to create jobs.