Today’s Headlines

  • Pelosi explains why DeFazio’s Wall Street infrastructure tax is on the table: "The downside is always felt by the worker and the upside is always realized by those who never seem to take a loss …" (HuffPost)
  • … meanwhile, the Speaker also signals openness to the "front-loaded" infrastructure proposal first floated by Durbin (Yglesias)
  • Officials from one California county plan to repeat a D.C. lobbying visit that cost upwards of $20,000 last year — and counted $25 million in federal stimulus money for road widening as its biggest victory (Visalia Times)
  • Pittsburgh housing development gets a $4.4 million green retrofit from the stimulus law (Post-Gazette via Specter Press)
  • Community Development Block Grants are looking like the unsung heroes of the stimulus, creating one job per $7,000 of spending, compared with a $56,000 per-job cost for other programs (The Avenue)
  • Massachusetts has approved $9 million in stimulus money to build a pedestrian bridge from the Patriots football stadium to a planned office complex development that’s now being used for parking (F-boro Reporter)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Behind President Obama’s Call For More Infrastructure Projects

By Tanya Snyder |
Tomorrow night, President Obama will unveil his jobs plan before a skeptical Congress. It’s unclear how much of the $300 billion proposal will go to infrastructure, but the president has said that will be a centerpiece of the proposal. An infrastructure bank and a new version of the expired Build America Bonds program could also […]

Crunching June Stimulus Numbers: Roads Create Pricier Jobs Than Transit

By Elana Schor |
Transportation spending under the economic stimulus law created close to 15,000 jobs in June, or three times as many as were created in May, according to estimates released today by the U.S. DOT. (Photo: Cleveland Plain Dealer) Those numbers are bound to hearten Obama administration officials who have defended the stimulus’ 6-percent investment in infrastructure […]

Boehner Touts Vague Outline of Oil Drilling + Transpo Bill

By Bill Straub |
Domestic oil drilling would increase exponentially under a proposal that the House GOP is developing as part of its legislative package for long-term transportation policy. John Boehner outlined the basics of the package today. Boehner said the bill, dubbed the “American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act,’’ will be filed soon and that he anticipates the lower […]

One More Sign That the Stimulus Traded Infrastructure for Tax Cuts

By Elana Schor |
The independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an economic analysis of the Obama administration’s stimulus law this week, and one chart in particular (see below right, or a larger version here) is getting a lot of attention from bloggers, including Ezra Klein and Ryan Avent.  (Image: CBO) The chart’s message, simply put: the elements of […]