Senate to Take Up Infrastructure Funding Bill to Create Jobs and Boost Economy

Economic Justice News 11.1,11

This week, the
U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on the
Rebuild America Jobs Act, legislation that would create
hundreds of thousands of jobs by investing in the nation’s crumbling roads,
highways, and schools.

The Act would
provide $50 billion of immediate investments in transportation infrastructure
and $10 billion for a national infrastructure institution bank. The bill would also ensure that transportation investments
allow for the hiring of local workers—to maximize economic benefits for
communities where projects are located—and provide investments for training,
apprenticeship, and skill development programs.

The Leadership
Conference supports investments in infrastructure because those investments
create jobs and boost the economy at a time when the nation desperately needs
it, particularly in communities of color hardest hit by the recession. In
fact, every $1 billion invested in public transportation
capital and operations creates or supports: 36,000 jobs, $3.6
billion in business sales, and nearly $500 million in federal, state, and local
tax revenues.

The vote this
week comes after a minority of senators blocked the Senate from
considering a larger jobs bill, the American Jobs Act, which would
have addressed the nation’s jobs crisis and sluggish economy in a more
comprehensive way. The Senate is now considering pieces of that bill
separately—the second of which is the Rebuild America Jobs Act—in hopes that
some jobs creating legislation will actually pass.