Economic Sabotage: House GOP Holding 1.9 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage

[FayeforCure]

While we mesmerize on transit in Jax, big things are happening OR RATHER not happening up in Washington, courtesy of the obstructionist Republican Party:

With Deadline Approaching, House GOP Still Holding 1.9 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage

By Travis Waldron on Jun 18, 2012 at 9:25 am


A long-term transportation package that would re-authorize current spending on highway construction projects and lock-in infrastructure spending for future projects appears all but dead thanks to Republican obstruction in the House of Representatives. With time running out before current authorization ends at the end of the month, House Republicans are demanding the Senate add approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to a transportation bill that already passed with widespread bipartisan support.

House and Senate negotiators have been meeting for weeks â€" since the Senate passed its bill, 74-22 â€" to work out a compromise, but the House GOP has repeatedly threatened to walk away unless the pipeline is attached. Now, the legislation is all but dead, an industry source told The Hill:


“I think the bill’s dead,” a transportation industry source said to The Hill on Friday. “I don’t think they can fix what they have in front of them. Kicking it up to the leadership probably gives it a chance…but every time they get to the five-yard line, they move the goal posts back.”

Lawmakers have until June 30 to reach a deal on transportation spending before the current funding mechanism for road and transit projects runs out. [...]

Boxer said that the House lacked “urgency” and “leadership” in the highway negotiations. [House Transportation Committee Chairman John] Mica countered that the Senate “appears unwilling to compromise at all” on House provisions, like mandating the approval of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.

This isn’t the first time House Republicans have jeopardized millions of transportation jobs by demanding approval of the pipeline. They threatened to walk away from negotiations early this month for that reason, and in March nearly caused a transportation shutdown before passing a short-term re-authorization. The implications aren’t small: 1.9 million workers will have to walk off the job without re-authorization of highway funds. Senate Democrats estimate that the long-term authorization package will create an additional one million jobs on top of that.

House Republicans have pitched the pipeline as a job creator, but the State Department estimates it will lead to only 6,000 temporary jobs â€" a far cry from the nearly three million created or saved by the long-term highway bill the GOP is blocking.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/18/501154/house-gop-transportation-deadline/

[tufsu1]

news from yesterday says they are back working really hard to get a deal done.

[BridgeTroll]

news from yesterday says they are back working really hard to get a deal done.

This is good news... the pipeline obstructionists should get out of the way to get this transportation package done...

[fsquid]

The house members are trying to get their thing included which is how business is done.  I fully expect that if a compromise isn't reached by early next week, the house will take the Keystone part out.  There is zero chance that this sucker isn't approved by June 30.

[downtownjag]

I heard the hold up was that the republicans were busy throwing their first-borns into volcano's and using the constitution for rolling paper.  Meanwhile, the democrats were busy working to balance the budget, promote world peace, and even tinker around with time travel.

[FayeforCure]

The house members are trying to get their thing included which is how business is done.  I fully expect that if a compromise isn't reached by early next week, the house will take the Keystone part out.  There is zero chance that this sucker isn't approved by June 30.

Yup that's how things are done...........anything that can't stand on it own merit as a stand-alone bill, gets tagged onto a "must pass" bill. More here:

Transportation Bill Hung Up On Keystone Pipeline

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on June 20, 2012.



A TransCanada pipeline

The Keystone Pipeline, which will transport oil from the oilsands fields of Alberta to the Texas coast, would be built and owned by TransCanada, a company that has thousands of miles of pipeline across Canada and the United States. The original plan for the Keystone pipeline had a route that crossed over the vast Kansas aquifer, and environmentalists and people who like to drink water and apply water to their lawns and like to take baths and fill swimming pools, objected to the route. The Republicans in the House of Representatives decided that the negotiations over the pipeline were a hot political issue, so they demanded that the Obama administration make a decision to create 20,000 jobs, which was kind of funny because TransCanada has less than 5,000 employees running all those thousands of miles of pipeline. So, the Obama administration made a decision. They refused to approve the pipeline.

TransCanada notified the administration that they would submit a new route, and the new negotiations have been going along amicably. Half the pipeline has been approved already, and TransCanada has submitted a preliminary route that avoids the Kansas aquifer. It is still being studied.

The Republicans, who cannot let this pipeline go through by a process of amicable negotiation, especially since TransCanada has publicly refuted the 20,000 jobs claim, have decided to keep this hot political issue going. They have put immediate approval of the pipeline on the new transportation bill. Now, they can say that not only is President Obama opposed to the pipeline, but opposed to the infrastructure spending he has been pushing for three years.

The transportation appropriations bill would re-authorize current spending on highway construction and set infrastructure spending for the future. It must be signed by June 30, when the current authorization runs out.

If the bill is not passed, 1.9 million workers will immediately be laid off. The long-term provisions of the bill are estimated to create an additional 1 million jobs. The pipeline will create 6,000 TEMPORARY jobs for its construction. So there you have it â€" the Republicans will lay off 1.9 million Americans, deny 1 million Americans good paying jobs, all to create 6,000 temporary jobs and a big ass piece of political propaganda.

Just, don’t try to tell these hard facts to any Fox viewer or right wing radio listener. They will say you are lying and refuse to hear the facts. That is the power of propaganda. It makes people act against their own best interests.

http://lezgetreal.com/2012/06/transportation-bill-hung-up-on-keystone-pipeline/

Republicans today are unreasonable and for example let the FAA go without funding for two weeks in 2011, and the government lost nearly $400 million in uncollected airline ticket taxes as a result.
During that time Nearly 4,000 FAA workers were furloughed and more than 200 airport construction and safety projects were halted. That's what obsructionism does when unrelated controversial bills get tagged on.

http://www.thetrucker.com/news/stories/2011/9/14/BilltoavertanotherfederalhighwayFAAshutdownpassesHouse.aspx

[fsquid]

I'm sure the democrats have never done such a thing

[If_I_Loved_you]

I'm sure the democrats have never done such a thing

Yes we have and will again in the future.

[downtownjag]

They only picked the name "Republican" because "Anti-Christ" was taken. 

[mtraininjax]

Both parties are a joke. Republican Senator Tom Coburn (OK) recently commented on the Disability Insurance fiasco, " Nobody (from either party) wants to touch things where they can be criticized". Both parties of people are flawed.

In the book, Why are There So Many Banking Crisis?, by economist Jean-Charles Rochet, he says that politicians lack the courage to step up and get in the way of NORMAL GREED in Finance. Who wants to resist the seductions of money and campaign contributions and the flattery that comes from those who have special interests? Where is that Special Interest legislation again?

[JeffreyS]

news from yesterday says they are back working really hard to get a deal done.

This is good news... the pipeline obstructionists should get out of the way to get this transportation package done...

The pipeline developers will not submit a specific proposal for environmental review. They asked for it to fast tracked without one and were told no. Not to the pipeline but to approval without a formal environmental review. I don't see how we can be for the pipeline or against it without the specifics reviewed.

[tufsu1]

+100

[FayeforCure]

Early yesterday morning, leaders from the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate came to an agreement on our nation's next multiyear surface transportation bill. This step marks the closest we have come to a successor to the previous bill, SAFETEA-LU, which expired 33 months ago. Expectations are high that this bill will be passed by both chambers and signed by the president before the expiration of the current SAFETEA-LU extension this coming Saturday at midnight.

Unfortunately, this bill is a step backwards for America's transportation system. Turning its back on decades of progress toward a balanced transportation system, it unduly tilts transportation investments to favor roads and highways, and disregards the needs of Americans who choose to walk or bike to get where they're going. As a result, our communities will miss opportunities to cut congestion, increase safety, promote physical activity and create jobs.

For Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's (RTC) statement on the bill, please read our blog post.

Much as in the Senate bill, the most significant changes include:

Merging the three core trail and active transportation programs - Transportation Enhancements (TE), Safe Routes to School (SRTS) and Recreational Trails  -and forcing TE and SRTS to compete for severely limited dollars against expensive new eligibilities, including some road projects;

Reducing the initial amount of funds available to these programs by 25-30 percent, and greatly increasing the ability of states to transfer funds away from these core programs which could multiply the loss; and

On the positive side, the bill will provide for greater local access to the funds through sub-allocation for larger communities (regions of 200,000+) and focusing of state administered funds on local needs (except where states opt out altogether).

In addition, a new Complete Streets policy that was in the Senate bill to require routine accommodation of all roadway users was not included in the final bill.



Please stay tuned as we continue to analyze the bill and, as always, fight for trails and your rights to safely and conveniently walk and bike.

Thank you,

Kevin Mills
Vice President of Policy and Trail Development
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

[BrooklynSouth]

I heard the hold up was that the republicans were busy throwing their first-borns into volcano's and using the constitution for rolling paper.  Meanwhile, the democrats were busy working to balance the budget, promote world peace, and even tinker around with time travel.